Updated at 6 p.m. with additional details and reaction.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration's controversial decision to include a question about citizenship status in the 2020 U.S. Census is drawing praise from GOP officials and scorn from Democrats and immigrant advocates, with some warning the change will result in inaccurate data and cost Texas significant federal aid.

Sen. Ted Cruz, who was among the Texas leaders — including Attorney General Ken Paxton — to request the change, called the move a "commonsense addition" to the census.

In a joint statement with GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Cruz said the senators asked the Commerce Department to include it in order to “gather more accurate data on the number of U.S. citizens” living in the country, according to the news release on Tuesday. “It is imperative that the data gathered in the census is reliable, given the wide-ranging impacts it will have on U.S. policy,” Cruz said.

But many Democrats and advocates worry it will intimidate unauthorized immigrants, shift or dilute political representation and result in dramatically reduced federal aid. The change has already drawn legal action from attorneys general in several blue states.

El Paso Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is challenging Cruz for his Senate seat, said the citizenship question is "specifically intended" to impact communities with large immigrant populations.

"For El Paso, for Houston, for every community across our defining border state, that means a loss of millions in resources for health care, public education, infrastructure and transportation, disaster relief and preparedness, and the distribution of billions in federal funds critical to projects in Texas," he said, adding it will "work in tandem with gerrymandering to erode the voting rights of those in our state and threaten our representation in the federal government."

The population count taken every decade is required by the Constitution and includes citizens and non-citizens. It's used to determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as how federal funds are distributed to local communities. In turn, it helps those communities determine where to build everything from schools and grocery stores to hospitals.

On Monday, the Commerce Department announced it is reinstating the citizenship question in order to help the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voting rights and helps prevent the unlawful dilution of the vote on the basis of race.

Critics balked, arguing it would achieve the opposite.

"Undercounting communities with large immigrant populations could mean weakened political representation, and the loss of millions in aid for health, education, and infrastructure," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a tweet.

The Trump administration is undermining the 2020 Census with its anti-immigrant agenda.



Undercounting communities with large immigrant populations could mean weakened political representation, and the loss of millions in aid for health, education, and infrastructure. https://t.co/9aw7In6u8W — ACLU (@ACLU) March 27, 2018

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that he decided the need for accurate data for Voting Rights Act purposes outweighed potential increased costs or the risk of lower response rates.

"The citizenship data provided to [the Department of Justice] will be more accurate with the question than without it, which is of greater importance than any adverse effect that may result from people violating their legal duty to respond," Ross wrote.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president "supports" the decision but that it was "made at the department level."

A joint fundraising committee for President Donald Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee anticipated the change, highlighting the addition of a citizenship question in a fundraising pitch last week. "The President wants to know if you're on his side," the solicitation asked.

Legal action

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday that seeks to block the move. Officials from New York and New Jersey, also Democratic-led states, were also planning on leading or participating in lawsuits. Massachusetts signaled interest, too.

In an op-ed, Becerra said the request is "an extraordinary attempt by the Trump administration to hijack the 2020 census for political purposes" and that it's part of a larger pattern by the Trump administration to target and vilify immigrants.

“Immigrants and their loved ones understandably are, and will be, concerned about how data collected in the 2020 Census will be used,” Becerra wrote.

Michael Li, senior counsel and redistricting expert at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, said federal laws restrict using data collected in census surveys for immigration purposes, but cautioned that's unlikely to comfort those living in the country illegally.

"There are really strong protections, but that may not be enough to stave off an undercount," Li said.

Faced with mounting legal action, the Justice Department said in a statement it "looks forward to defending the reinstatement of the citizenship question, which will allow the department to protect the right to vote and ensure free and fair elections for all Americans."

Texas effects

A 2017 study by Election Data Services Inc. found that Texas is among a handful of states expected to gain congressional seats after the 2020 census. According to the study, Texas could pick up as many as three.

San Antonio Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, said those anticipated gains are now in jeopardy and chided the Trump administration for a change that will "scare away millions of people in our country from participating, skewing the results."

Li noted that Latinos account for much of Texas' growth over the last decade, and said that an undercount of those communities could hit cities such as Dallas or Houston particularly hard, costing those areas seats at both the state and federal level. That could harm either political party, he said, as majority-minority districts are protected by the Voting Rights Act.

"It could be a Republican seat that vanishes," Li said. "It could hurt Democrats in the long run but it could hurt Republicans in the short run, too."

Texas could also see hefty financial consequences.

Eva DeLuna Castro, a budget analyst with the progressive Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin, pointed to data that estimates Texas received at least $43 billion in federal grants and services as a result of its population count in 2015. The CPPP estimates that will be even higher — at least $45 billion — in 2017, she said.

On Twitter, she noted that Medicaid funds are linked to state per-capita income, which means a lower population would result in less federal aid. That puts greater strain on Texas' taxpayers, she said, adding that even a 0.1 percent decrease could cost Texas $30 million a year.

The financial implications may not take effect until a few years after the 2020 census, but would become "another challenge for state budget writers that don't have enough resources" for schools, highways or public safety, she said.

Legislative pushback

Democratic lawmakers in both chambers have introduced measures intended to stop the change, though they face an uphill battle in a GOP-controlled Congress.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is behind a bill that would block the U.S. Census Bureau from asking about citizenship status. And Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., has sponsored legislation that would prohibit the commerce secretary from enacting any major operational design that had not been researched and tested for less than three years prior to the opening day of the census.

The Commerce Department said there's historical precedent for including the question, noting that between 1820 and 1950, "almost every decennial census asked about citizenship in some form."

What's more, the Census Bureau already asks about place of birth, citizenship and year of entry on a separate survey conducted every year called the American Community Survey, which only samples a portion of the population.

Li, the redistricting scholar, cautioned that the two surveys are used for vastly different purposes.

Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican senator, said in a prepared statement that without asking the question, "we can't responsibly ensure equal representation for states in the House of Representatives or assess voter participation."

Census counts are taken by mail and by workers going door-to-door. The Census Bureau says that the 2010 census drew a massive response, with about 74 percent of the households mailing in forms and the remaining households counted by workers in neighborhoods.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.