Last week, the Trump administration decided that the next census would ask every person in the country about their citizenship. An uproar followed. Minority communities will bear the most immediate brunt; indeed, some believe that’s the very reason for the change.



But the related assumption — that the decision benefits Republicans — may be strikingly myopic.

The Census Bureau collects a lot of information to inform public and private decision making. The most important is what is called the decennial enumeration: a head count, every 10 years, of each and every individual in the country. An accurate census is the Constitution’s first specific job for the federal government, five sentences into our founding charter. It’s the thing that drives political representation and billions of dollars in funding.

To ensure the accuracy of the constitutionally required count, the decennial enumeration is designed to be minimally intrusive: 10 questions taking 10 minutes or less. For those who in this climate distrust the federal government, adding a question on citizenship makes the head count toxic.

Its intrusion into the census could well have unanticipated consequences for the long-term distribution of power and money. Census results drive both political representation and funding — for large groups of people in broad areas. This means the decision to roll loaded dice on enumeration does not merely impact undocumented individuals, or permanent residents or minority citizens. Everyone in an area that loses numbers also loses clout and cash.