The Commerce Department announced that a citizenship question will be included in the 2020 Census, CNN reported.
The Justice Department had asked that the question be reinstated for 2020; in previous censuses between 1820 and 1950, a question about citizenship was asked, the Commerce Department said in a statement. Justice Department officials said the question was necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act.
The idea is favored by President Donald Trump,
Census data are used to determine where federal funds are spent and how congressional districts are drawn, CNN reported. The census is intended to count all citizens.
Asking a citizenship question raises concerns that undocumented people would not complete the census form, producing an inaccurate count.
"This is an arbitrary and untested decision that all but guarantees that the Census will not produce a full and accurate count of the population as the constitution requires," Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told CNN.
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