Civil rights lawyers sued the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday to try to stop plans to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census questionnaire.

The Manhattan federal court lawsuit on behalf of immigrants’ rights groups says racial animus was behind a recent announcement that the census will include a citizenship question for the first time since 1950.

The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others, claims the question intentionally discriminates against immigrants and will increase fear in their communities. It alleges census participation will be depressed, diluting the economic and political power of residents.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the plan in March, saying the question was needed in part to help the government enforce the Voting Rights Act, a 1965 law meant to protect political representation of minority groups. The Commerce Department is responsible for the census.


The plan has resulted in several lawsuits, including one in California, the nation’s most populous state with the highest concentration of foreign-born residents, and another in New York brought by 17 Democratic attorneys general, the District of Columbia, six cities and the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Donna Lieberman, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a release that the Trump administration was “shamelessly weaponizing the census to wage its war on communities of color, immigrants and the poor.”

She added: “New Yorkers refuse to be undercounted, discriminated against or driven into the shadows.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


The census is required by the Constitution every 10 years. The data it collects is used to determine the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives, as well as how federal money is distributed to local communities, among many other things.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the New York Immigration Coalition, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and other groups. Besides the Commerce Department and Ross, the Bureau of the Census and its director, Ron Jarmin, were listed as defendants.