Cities and Immigrants Drove Census Controversy — 100 Years Ago
A century ago, debate over immigration and urban-rural power stalled congressional action on the results of the census. The tensions that mattered then still persist a century later.
President Trump says his administration was "very strongly" contemplating a delay in the 2020 census because the Supreme Court has blocked the addition of a question on citizenship status.
That shocked a lot of people in government, business and academia who have a stake in the enormous, complex and costly undertaking that counts the U.S. population every 10 years — and has done so since 1790.
Among other things, the census is meant to determine how much clout each state has in Congress, and which parts of each state have the most. So any delay in the next national head count could postpone the next round of turnover at all levels of elected office.
The census has been remarkably regular over the life of
