California quickly filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the Commerce Department announced that the 2020 census would ask people whether they were U.S. citizens .

The citizenship question , announced Monday night, will discourage people from responding to the census and will violate the Constitutions mandate for actual enumeration, the states lawsuit argues, according to The Washington Post.

The Census numbers provide the backbone for planning how our communities can grow and thrive in the coming decade, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. What the Trump administration is requesting is not just alarming, it is an unconstitutional attempt to discourage an accurate Census count.

The census hasnt included a question about citizenship since 1950 . Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the question would allow better enforcement of voting laws.

Adding a citizenship question is likely to make people more wary of filling out the survey, causing undercounts especially in communities with large immigrant populations, HuffPost and The Washington Post have previously reported. An undercount could cost states like California seats in Congress, federal funding based on population and electoral college votes in presidential elections.