Barbara Jordan: “I cannot understand at what universe our leaders would not want to know who's a citizen and who's not.”

I would be the last person to claim that our Nation is perfect, but as a Nation we have a kind of perfection in us because our founding principle is universal. We are all created equal. People come from all over the world to take us up on…

We are here for one simple reason: The commonsense question of asking citizenship on the census.

The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport.

I would not, quote, 'be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.'