Kamala Harris says Trump is contributing to 'a faulty census' over citizenship question: 'Highly irresponsible'

During her interview on The Rachel Maddow Show Thursday night, Senator Kamala Harris said President Trump was using the 2020 census as another way to instill fear within immigrant communities.

Earlier that day, President Trump backed down from his fight to override the Supreme Court's ruling that barred the citizenship question from the 2020 census. But Senator Harris is concerned the damage has already been done.

"When the census taker comes knocking on that door, they're not gonna answer the door, for fear that this being an agent of the government, might be in the business of deportation," Harris said. "Or investigating who is in that household for purposes that are about deportation and not counting people."

The Democratic presidential candidate pointed out that many of these immigrant families have already been living in fear of deportation ever since Trump was elected.

"We actually started to see that the day after the election in November of 2016. The number of families where the children did not want to go to school for fear that if they came back, their parents wouldn't be home,” she said. “The number of families that did not send their child to the pediatrician, pediatricians were talking about this, for fear that the child and the family would have contact with the government."

The senator explained that while the citizenship question may not be on the 2020 census, she believes Trump still got what he wanted and that the president's actions will have long-term effects.

Harris told Maddow, "What this president is contributing to is a faulty census that we will have to live with for the next 10 years. It is highly irresponsible because it's yet another example of this president trying to interfere, and if not, weaken our democracy."

The Rachel Maddow Show airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on MSNBC.

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