Mayor Mike Duggan and U.S Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit don't always agree, but they joined forces Wednesday to urge census workers to come forward if they have evidence federal officials undermined the count in Detroit.
At stake is the city's share of $1.5 trillion in federal spending. The U.S. census, which has been conducted every 10 years since America's founding, determines who is living where. Then, federal spending is allocated based on where people live.
Detroit officials dating from at least Mayor Coleman Young, who served from 1974 to 1994, have said the city's residents are chronically undercounted, costing the city and schools tens of millions of dollars in federal aid.
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This time, Duggan and Tlaib, both Democrats, suspect the Republican-led administration of President Donald Trump set out to skip over residents of major cities.
"We are very concerned that the Census Bureau did not make a good-faith effort to count the number of people in the city of Detroit," Duggan said during a news conference at Detroit Public Safety Headquarters.
In addition to ending the nationwide head count early, Duggan said, federal officials did not provide the staff typically assigned to Detroit in previous counts. And he said it took the feds almost a month to begin seeking out city residents who did not fill out census forms.
Tlaib echoed Duggan's concerns, saying: "Detroit deserves to be counted fairly."
Joining Tlaib and Duggan were two census workers who said they witnessed a much more organized and efficient effort to count residents outside the city and who said they often waited hours just for lists of addresses to check on.
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Duggan and Tlaib urged other census workers with evidence that the Detroit count was disorganized or poorly run to call 866-20-COUNT (866-202-686 or send an email to info@20count.
Depending on what they learn, Duggan said the city may challenge the federal government's determination of how many people live in Detroit.
"We just want to know the truth," the mayor said. "We've got two months to put together our case."

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