President Trump is giving up his effort to add a citizenship question on the 2020 census and will be looking instead for other means by which to survey the American public on the question, according to sources who spoke to ABC News.
Trump will likely take executive action by instructing the Commerce Department to obtain the citizenship data through other means, thereby bypassing the obstacles set up for him by last month’s Supreme Court decision.
The motion is also being fought in lower courts in Maryland, California, and New York.
EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Trump is expected to announce he is backing down from his effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, and will instead instruct the Commerce Department to get the data through other means, sources tell @ABC News. https://t.co/yZHn8Q50eU
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) July 11, 2019
The news comes days after Attorney General William Barr asserted that the Department of Justice had a new plan to get the citizenship question on the census, despite the resistance met from the courts.
“I think over the next day or two, you’ll see what approach we’re taking,” Barr said to reporters in South Carolina on Monday. “And I think it does provide a pathway for getting the question on the census.”
