I agree with you that the only absolute question to be answered is how many people live here. I'm not sure how asking whether you're a citizen accomplishes that. My concern is that people will choose not to participate in the census at all, either because they're here illegally or because they're in a household with mixed status.
In the last census, I got the long form, and they were pretty insistent that I return it - in fact, I got a nasty letter from the Census Bureau at one point because I didn't return it soon enough. Most folks don't get those forms or get a census-taker such as Linda knocking on their door, and those are the ones who could fall through the cracks. |
