Approximately 50 people turned out today for the Emergency Rally on the Census at Foley Square. Organizers and city council candidates from various districts came together to emphasize the importance of the census, amid threats that the White House wants the census finished early 
“Historically we know that Black and Brown communities have been underrepresented and undercounted,” said @AMRichardson1. “This is no more than another oppressive tactic by the white house to shorten the amount of time that communities of color can stand up and be counted.”
“I live on an invisible borough,” said primary organizer @Amoyforcouncil , City Council Candidate for District 49 Staten Island (below, right). “I see on a regular basis what it’s like to fight for resources. We are the only borough that does not have a public hospital.”
“The census is apart of the constitution. The founding fathers knew the importance of being counted,” added Barnes. “We have a White House who is trying to count nobody at all practically. They are literally and figuratively throwing it in the garbage.”
“There’s nowhere in my district (LIC) for a woman to give birth,” said @julia_forman, CC candidate for District 26, on the importance of being counted. LIC has seen massive growth since 2010. “It’s something that really isn’t thought about, but we have a lot of young families.”
“Sometimes we may be wary or suspicious of government, but we have to realize that the man in the White House does not have access to our census information,” said Judy Newton, City Council candidate for District 46 (below, left).
“If they refuse to take the 10 minutes to fill those forms out, they will continue to suffer even more because the funds and representatives will be drastically cut,” added Newton, addressing Trump’s recent executive order to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census.
“There’s really been a war on immigrants by this administration, which is showing up in this census,” said legal aid attorney and District 33 CC candidate @stu_sherman, who highlighted that the Census rally was taking place outside New York’s Immigration Court.
“It seems like a concerted effort to preclude them from being apart of the census,” added Sherman. “[The administration] know that what they’re doing is legally dubious. But it’s not so much if it works or not, it’s if it scares people out of being counted.”
