1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

Oppose the Department of Commerce's proposed Census rule change before the November 2 public comment deadline. This rule would do two things that undermine the Constitution and harm every community in the country. First, it would exclude non-citizens without green cards from the Census count, stripping representation from international students, work visa holders, refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented individuals. Pew Research estimates that is 16 million people. The 14th Amendment requires counting all persons, not just citizens, and this rule plainly violates that. Second, it would eliminate race and ethnicity questions entirely. That data is how we track disparities in healthcare, environmental conditions, and more. Without it, enforcing civil rights laws becomes nearly impossible, and federal funding gets steered away from the communities those programs were built to serve. More than $1.5 trillion in annual federal funding flows through Census data to schools, hospitals, roads, and emergency services. Getting this count wrong has consequences that last a decade. Speak out against this rule.