Our nation is made great by the many immigrants who have come here and made themselves part of the American story. We will need more immigrants if the federal government is to avoid bankruptcy.

But good government demands an understanding of who lives here and what lives they lead. Correspondingly, the Trump administration is correct to include the question on the 2020 census: "Are you a citizen of the United States?" That inclusion of that question will soon be ruled upon by the Supreme Court. Until then, and perhaps afterward, Democrats will remain upset.

Some of their concerns are more justified than others. Take the analysis from left-wing news site Vox. Senior Correspondent Dara Lind notes that Democrats in blue states are "worried [the question's inclusion] will make their residents less likely to return their census forms — and thus hurt their apportionment in Congress after the 2020 census results are tallied."

If the best reason not to do this is that Democrats rely on non-voter illegal immigrants to artificially boost their apportionment of seats in the post-2020 House of Representatives — well, do they really want to admit to that?

Other excuses against the citizenship question seem more justified. It is more reasonable, for example, to believe that longtime illegal residents of the U.S. might not complete the census form in fear of being identified and deported. That would negatively affect the development of good policy and also risk inaccurate social science analysis.

Still, the basic point here is whether it is appropriate to ask residents of America whether they are citizens. I believe it is.