Politics
Op-Ed: What can we do about the Latino undercount in the 2020 census?
On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau launched a long-awaited report estimating the 2020 census undercount. Given the challenges of conducting a census in a pandemic, undercounts had been anticipated by many specialists and the report bore them out: The general whole inhabitants was deemed correct, however white folks and Asian Individuals had been overcounted, and different teams had been undercounted, particularly Latinos. In truth, the undercount fee of Latinos — at 5% — represents a staggering 300% improve in contrast with the 2010 census.
This isn’t a brand new downside. Latinos have been a “onerous to depend” inhabitants for many years. Analysts on the Census Bureau know their counts might miss those that have decrease incomes, expertise housing instability, converse languages apart from English and mistrust or concern the federal government — all qualities current in Latino communities, which embody excessive percentages of immigrants and whose members face discrimination that may result in financial drawback.
However whereas an undercount might have been anticipated, a 300% improve is just not enterprise as regular. Somewhat, it’s an injustice and the fruits of a calculated assault on the census throughout Donald Trump’s presidency.
When President Trump was elected, the Census Bureau was within the course of of fixing the way in which it tabulates race and ethnicity. Drawing on greater than a decade of analysis and with enter from a whole lot of civil rights and different organizations, the bureau had determined to permit respondents to establish their race and ethnicity in a “examine all that apply” format, and to incorporate among the many choices Hispanic/Latino and Center Jap/North African. The revised format was proven in exams to enhance response charges for all teams, and particularly for Latinos.
In 2018, Trump and his secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, halted the revision and demanded their very own change within the 2020 census kinds — a query to find out the citizenship of respondents. A prolonged authorized battle ensued, ending in a 2019 ruling siding with Latino advocacy teams who had proven {that a} citizenship query would disparately have an effect on Latino communities, dramatically miserable their participation and undermining the Structure’s mandate to depend “the entire variety of individuals in every state.”
The harm was accomplished nevertheless. Throughout 2019-2020, we performed interviews with Latinos in two main metropolitan areas and located widespread mistrust of the Trump administration that usually led our interviewees to concern finishing and submitting their census kinds.
And now the consequence: A big undercount of Latinos within the statistical base that governs political illustration and plenty of different capabilities of presidency. The 5% underrepresentation for a Latino inhabitants of greater than 60 million may translate into a minimum of $3 billion in misplaced funding for some cities and cities. The impression on political energy is as profound. The undercount will possible imply fewer elected advocates for the type of immigration and financial reforms which are central for Latino communities’ well-being.
In the long run, the Trump administration bought what it needed. It undermined a burgeoning minority in america, falsifying the dimensions and scale of the inhabitants and actually discounting them.
So the place will we go from right here? First, Robert L. Santos, the brand new director of the Census Bureau, can instantly undertake the revised race and ethnicity census query format so that each one future analysis — together with the interim surveys that complement the decennial depend — will enable Latinos to raised establish themselves.
Subsequent, Congress should set up a job drive to look at the difficulty of Census Bureau integrity, with the purpose of protecting the decennial depend from overt political manipulation. The Trump administration’s conduct proves that we want a set of legislative insurance policies that defend and reinforce the bureau’s independence and scientific targets. The decennial depend mustn’t ever once more be held hostage to presidential whims.
Lastly, Latino advocacy and neighborhood teams should manage with others to petition and stress state legislators to make use of the Census Bureau’s adjusted estimates as they set coverage within the coming years.
State and congressional redistricting based mostly on the incorrect depend has already occurred and may’t be undone, however the adjusted figures will help to fight among the results of undercounting on the way in which funds are allotted.
The nonpartisan work of the Census Bureau can and should be protected. Finally, the undercounts in 2020 affected folks of coloration — together with those that establish as Latino, Black and American Indian. The errors symbolize a important difficulty for our democracy. They make communities invisible and set off losses that can be felt for generations to return.
G. Cristina Mora is an affiliate professor of sociology and the co-director of the Institute of Governmental Research at UC Berkeley. She is the writer of “Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats and Media Constructed a New American.” Julie A. Dowling is affiliate professor of sociology and Latin American and Latino Research on the College of Illinois, Chicago. She is the writer of “Mexican Individuals and the Query of Race.” She served on the U.S. Census Bureau’s advisory committee on race and ethnicity from 2014 to 2020.
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
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The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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