TAMU Law Answers

Latinx Civil Rights Webinar Series

Who Counts?: The Census, Reapportionment, & Redistricting in the Latinx Community

Webinar resources:

• Video of webinar
• Transcript of webinar video

The 2020 Census count has great implications for all communities but particularly communities of color that face systemic undercounts. An adequate count of the Latinx community, which is responsible for more than half of the growth of the U.S. population in the last decade, is particularly threatened by previous efforts to add a citizenship question to the Census, and by current efforts to discount portions of the Latinx immigrant community in reapportionment and redistricting. This panel will discuss the challenges and opportunities for Latinx communities arising out of the Census count and its impact on minority communities’ voting rights and political power.

Discussion Topics:

• Latino population growth
• Politicization of the Census collection process, including reducing the period of non-response follow-up
• New approaches to the Census count that put into question the validity of an adequate count
• The reapportionment and threats to subtract the undocumented
• Redistricting and the threat to equalize districts on voter population instead of total population

Presenters:

• Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel, MALDEF
• Terry Ao Minnis, Senior Director of Census and Voting Programs, Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• Moderator: Leticia Saucedo, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law