Are you a U.S. citizen? That will be a new question on the 2020 U.S. census, according to the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau. The addition of this question has caused widespread condemnation by a group of attorneys general and immigrant rights advocates, who say the question will deter immigrants from participating in the census. California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Monday he’ll sue the Trump administration over the census question, saying, “Including a citizenship question on the 2020 census is not just a bad idea—it is illegal.” This is reporter Ari Berman, speaking on Democracy Now! about the citizenship question.

Ari Berman: “It sounds like a simple question, but the experts that I talked to say that it will destroy and sabotage the entire census, that given the climate of fear with the Trump administration, nobody, particularly immigrant groups, both noncitizens and citizens, want to answer the question, if they’re a citizen, for fear of how it will be used by the Trump administration. If this question is on the census, it will massively depress responses among immigrant groups. That will lead to fewer seats, fewer resources, for areas that have lots of immigrants, particularly Democratic areas, places like New York and California. And it will shift power even more to Republican areas, that are whiter and more conservative. So, this has very, very, very profound implications for our democracy.”

Click here to see our full interview with Ari Berman.