In late June, the Supreme Court put a block on the idea of a “citizenship question” in the 2020 census.
Following the high court's block, the Trump administration decided not to fight the decision any further and removed the question from the census.
But, social media posts and viral images seem to indicate that the question is still on the census anyway.
THE QUESTION:
Is a citizenship question still appearing on the 2020 census despite promises it had been removed? Does the photo above really show it on the census as it claims?
THE ANSWER:
No - the photo above is based on a separate U.S. Census Bureau form. The 2020 census will not have a citizenship question and the early draft of it clearly shows that it does not have one.
WHAT WE FOUND:
The image above can be traced back to the form for the 2019 American Community Survey. It's a legal document provided by the Census Bureau, but it’s not the same form as the actual 2020 census.
According to the Census Bureau, the American Community Survey is sent out every year to a few million households. It was actually created to shorten the overall census form. The long-form questions that used to be sent with the census now come in the form of the Community Survey.
Their charts show that since 2000, the number of households that were mailed the Survey has increased each year.
While the Community Survey does continue to have a citizenship question, that question will not be on the 2020 census.
Additionally, there was some confusion due to a small census test that was sent out. This form was sent by the Census Bureau before the Supreme Court ruling as part of their testing and preparation for the 2020 census. It still contained the citizenship question that has since been removed.
To further confirm that the picture above is false, take a look at the real 2020 census form.
You can scan through all eight pages and there won’t be a question about the respondent’s citizenship.
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