Of course, the move generated immediate hysteria among open border advocates who believe such a question would discourage illegal aliens from taking part in the census.

The Department of Justice sent a letter to the Census Bureau asking if it was possible to include a question on citizenship for the 2020 census.

The citizenship question would be used to better enforce the Voting Rights Act, says DoJ.

The Hill:

“To fully enforce those requirements, the Department needs a reliable calculation of the citizen voting-age population in localities where voting rights violations are alleged or suspected,” the letter said. However, critics say including a question on immigration could prevent immigrants from participating in the census due to fears the government could use the information against them. The letter was drafted by Arthur Gary, a lawyer at the DOJ, to Census Bureau official Dr. Ron Jarmin. A spokesperson for the Census Bureau confirmed the letter to ProPublica, saying the “request will go through the well-established process that any potential question would go through.” The Hill has reached out to the Justice Department for comment. The letter comes after reports in recent months that the Trump administration plans to include an immigration-related question in the census.

I fail to see how such a question could generate controversy. Illegal aliens are already very distrustful of the census so it's hard to see how one question would make it worse. They really needn't worry. The Census Bureau cannot share information from the census with Homeland Security or any other federal agency due to confidentiality laws.

Instead of getting hysterical about adding the citizenship question, perhaps illegal alien advocates could explain to them they are in no danger of discovery from the Census Bureau. That would be a far more productive use of their time and energy.

Since illegals have no voting rights, counting them in a citizenship census would seem to be superfluous. Even legal residents cannot vote in federal elections, So there is a legitimate question about whether the census even needs to know the citizenship status of the people it counts.