Gov. Kelly's view on citizenship status is in step with Democrats

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly says that a citizenship question should not be included on the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census.

The governor’s opinion, in my view, is politically motivated, and in step with the National Democratic Party’s view. And wrong.

Democrats think illegal immigrants - if they can somehow manage to illegally vote - will vote for Democrats who promise them free everything.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled against plans by the administration of President Donald Trump to ask people if they were U.S. citizens during the 2020 census.

The Trump administration correctly, in my view, argued the citizenship question was a legitimate feature of a plan to improve enforcement of the U.S. Voting Rights Act.

Just because a question about citizenship status hasn’t been part of the U.S. census since the 1950s doesn’t mean it’s not right to include one on the 2020 census.

Gov. Kelly, a Democrat, said she opposed the citizenship question because it would have, in her opinion “deterred participation rather than encourage a full accounting of people in the United States.’’

The U.S. Constitution requires a population count every 10 years. It serves to determine the number of U.S. representatives from each state and directs appropriation of billions of dollars in federal funding.

Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who believes the citizenship question ought to be part of the census, urged the Trump administration to continue the fight.

“Most people would be surprised to hear that the United States stopped asking the citizenship question,” Kobach said recently. “It would be a travesty if the most powerful and advanced nation on Earth remained willfully ignorant of how many citizens it has.”

I agree with Kobach.

Kelly said an undercount would damage the state’s political influence in Washington, D.C., and cost communities, especially rural cities and towns, every year for a decade.

 “At stake is federal funding distributed to communities for schools, roads, public safety, parks and other programs,’’ Kelly said. “The census also determines how many seats states have in the U.S. House, and Kansas deserves fair representation.”

Kansas elects four people to the U.S. House, but Republicans and Democrats like Kelly have expressed apprehension about eventually dropping to three representatives.

I agree that all states deserve fair representation – of the number of U.S. citizens in their state – not the total number of people in their state.

I don’t believe U.S. citizens – those in Kansas included – want to continue to move blindly into the future regarding the citizenship status of our people.