The census, veterans and the value of citizenship

After a confusing two weeks trying to respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling to drop the citizenship question from the 2020 census, the Trump administration seems ready to forge ahead. And even if the administration ultimately loses its tug of war with the court, the issue — and the passions it generates — are far from resolved.

Supporters of the question will work to bolster the legal rationale for it from future judicial scrutiny. Opponents of the citizenship question will continue to argue that it will discourage immigrants from responding to the census at all.

For most Americans, however, the hypersensitivity that surrounds this debate seems oddly misplaced, especially for those who are Americans by choice, not by birth. The census asks us about our race, age, ancestry, gender and household relationship. In the midst of so many personal questions, why should a question of such obvious public importance be treated as if it involved an unspeakable taboo?

Citizenship question marks citizenship’s value

If anything, inclusion of this question would remind us just how valuable a thing American citizenship really is. This is especially true of the 130,000 immigrants in uniform since 2001, many of whom I served with in the Army, who found an accelerated route to citizenship by signing up to serve in our armed forces.

An expedited pathway to citizenship program, begun under President George W. Bush, was based on the premise that talent and courage can come from anywhere. These patriot immigrants, willing to brave combat in pursuit of citizenship, teach the true value of a birthright that native born Americans have all too often taken for granted.

This recent experience is in keeping with a history in which immigrants have long shown an intense desire to leave their place of birth and find pride as citizens of the land of their choosing. One of the most famous heroes of the Revolutionary War was the Marquis de Lafayette, who was proud of his service to his adopted country. In the Civil War, over 25% of the Union Army comprised of immigrants. They have served and fought in every conflict since.

Immigrants are proud to claim citizenship

In the lore of my family, my great-grandfather, who emigrated from a tiny village in Austria, was asked about the place of his birth and those of his parents in the 1880 census. He didn’t shrink from answering these questions, despite prejudice against immigrants during that previous high point of immigration in the late 19th century that makes our current political atmosphere look tame. Nor was my great-grandmother from Northern Ireland discouraged from answering questions about her origins, even though she was not a citizen, at a time when Irish Americans were openly despised.

Through much of the 20th century, foreign-born men and later all foreign-born people were directly asked about their citizenship. Of the many immigrants I have known, they all have been proud to acknowledge that becoming an American was one of the biggest and best choices they have made in their lives.

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It seems only fair to those legal immigrants — and especially those who have put themselves in harm’s way for our country to become citizens — not to conflate them along with millions of noncitizens. Tabulating a raw total of U.S. citizens might also highlight for policymakers in Washington the need to help those who served in the military but who have yet to be given the citizenship they were promised.

Knowing our citizens is knowing our country

Finally, it only seems a matter of common sense that to truly know our own country, we should know how many citizens we actually have. The United Nations recommends that countries ask the citizenship question in their census. As The Heritage Foundation notes, from Germany to Indonesia, national governments do not shirk from counting their citizens. Why do we?

As the U.S. Census records the linguistic and ethnic differences that we celebrate as our diversity, it should also record a common citizenship that unites us as one people. Otherwise, we are sending a signal that citizenship is not a thing to be valued. Let all voices be counted, especially those who fought — in some cases literally — to become citizens of the United States.