Maryland AG Joins Fight Over 2030 Census Changes
State of MD - Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown has signed on to a letter opposing proposed changes to the 2030 Census. He is one of 24 attorneys general and two governors who sent the comment letter.
A comment letter is a formal response sent while a proposed federal rule is still open for public feedback. This one responds to a rule put forward by the U.S. Census Bureau under the Trump administration.
The rule would change who gets counted, which questions get asked and how the Bureau decides where a person lives. The group says the changes would make the count less accurate. They also say communities could lose political representation and access to important federal funding.
The census is taken once every 10 years. Its numbers are used to divide seats in Congress among the states.
Under the proposed rule, millions of noncitizens would not be counted. That includes people here on temporary visas, such as work visas, student visas and exchange visitor visas. Refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants would also be left out, along with some U.S. nationals.
The coalition says that breaks the law. They point to the Fourteenth Amendment, which requires all persons to be counted when congressional seats are handed out. They also point to the Census Act, which requires the Bureau to report each state's total population for that same purpose.
The proposal would also ban questions about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. The census has collected background information, including race, since the very first count in 1790.
States lean on that information in a lot of ways. According to the letter, it helps them shape public policy, spot gaps between groups and see how government programs are working. It's also used to enforce laws against discrimination and to support research.
The third concern is about where people get counted. Since 1790, the census has counted people at their "usual residence," meaning the place where they normally live and sleep.
The new rule would drop that standard. People would instead be counted where they lawfully spend the most days between January 3 and April 1. Tax records would also be used as proof of where someone lives.
The coalition warns this could lead to people being counted at a vacation home, a workplace or another place where they don't really live. They say that would throw off state population totals and change how political representation is divided.
Brown joined the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. The governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania also signed the letter.
