Every 10 years we are required to take a census (tally) of the number of people in our country. Over time we have found it necessary to add pages of additional information, education, employment, what kind of house you live in and whether you rent or own, age, ancestry, internet use, health insurance coverage, whether you receive food stamps, income, fuel you use to heat your house and much more. But, oh the uproar at the suggestion that you would be asked if you are a citizen. Can there be a bigger hypocrisy?
In my mind, the citizenship question should be #1. Much government planning is based on census data. In doing that planning, the number that are really eligible for some things is important. I would also contend, if we are not going to ask citizenship question, we shouldn't ask all the other invasive questions and save money by doing a simple head count.
The real issue here is not protection of illegals, it is about votes, plain and simple. Places like California would lose House members if an honest count of legal voters was done.
