Morning! A thing getting lost in the news is that Trump is ending the 2020 Census count early and it's going to disproportionately hurt communities of color all over the county.

They'll lose a lot of federal money.

Their political power will be weakened.

For 10 years.

Why will this hurt communities of color so much?

Because many rely on the final stage of the census count, the in-person "nonresponse follow-ups," to be counted. This is the only stage of the census count being cut short.

It is difficult to count people in minority + rural communities without in-person census takers.

Some have no internet. The shift from landlines to cell phones has made it harder to connect people to home addresses. The final round of door-knocking is the way to count them.

The census isn't just a head count.

It's used to draw congressional districts. If fewer people of color are counted in a given area, for example, their community may be split up among several districts, making it harder to elect a lawmaker responsive to them.

The census is also used to decide how much federal $ goes to every community.

For *each person* who isn’t counted, their community loses *thousands of dollars* every year for 10 years.

That $ would have gone toward things like health care, education and infrastructure.

So why is the Census Bureau doing this?

Officials have said the coronavirus pandemic has delayed their schedule and it is pushing to meet deadlines.

But they are only cutting short this stage of the census count.

There are senators + governors in both parties upset about this. They have written to the Census Bureau & the Commerce Dept urging them to stick to the original Oct. 31 deadline vs Sept. 30.

Senators'/governors' staff I've talked to have not heard back.

I talked to one of those governors.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says it's clear to her that this isn't about meeting deadlines.

“There’s absolutely no question in my mind" that this is entirely designed to erase minority voices, Brown said. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oregon-governor-kate-brown-2020-census-trump_n_5f46a9a1c5b697186e3023f9

Tribal advocacy groups are very concerned about this. Some reservations have no internet and are very remote. They'll just be passed over entirely.

“Think of being powerless and poor. That’s what this does.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/census-bureau-2020-native-american-tribes-undercount_n_5f355270c5b6960c0671ca77

What is happening here is right up there with voting rights being weakened in minority communities.

If you're not counted in the census, you lose money and you lose your voice. That's what it comes down to.

. @RepRubenGallego, who chairs the House Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the U.S., also says this is 100% politics.

“This is about Republicans trying to keep control over a changing demographic that they just can’t keep up with," he said. "They’re just not going to count.”

One census taker just dropped a note to say the time crunch isn't the only challenge. It's massive distrust in Latino communities.

People won't come to the door when they see a white guy standing there with a tablet + a badge.

"ICE has ruined the census in my neighborhood."

A note from another census taker in Texas, who says another challenge is the heat. They can't stay out for too long. Normally people are doing this in April, not August.

Census takers here are allowed to go out in the a.m. for safety. But that means "not many people are home."