The 2020 Census is coming up. This is an incredibly important process that happens in the US every ten years. The results determine how much federal funding is allocated to each state, as well as how many seats in the US House of Representatives. And this time, more so than others, there is severe risk of vast communities being under-counted, for several reasons. Among them:

General fear and anxiety among immigrant and refugee communities: The xenophobic general philosophies and horrifying, cruel policies embraced by this current administration and its supporters have been as demoralizing as they are destructive. Many people—immigrants, refugees, Muslims—are rightly fearful of the government and will want to keep a low-profile.

Potential new questions about citizenship will increase fear even further: The administration is pushing to include questions about US Citizenship, despite the fact that this information is already collected through other surveys. There is fear of what the government will do with this data. Think about DACA; people voluntarily disclosed information, and now it is being used to potentially deport them.

Online process will make it harder for low-income people and non-English speakers: Due to the funding cuts, this will be the first Census that will be conducted mostly online, as opposed to paper surveys. This adds a layer of obstacles for people who may be poor and do not have computers at home, or who may not be proficient in English. Even though the surveys are translated into different languages, people still need English to navigate the technology required to even get to the surveys.

We who care about social justice need to get fired up.

Read the full article about the social justice implications of the U.S. Census at Nonprofit AF.