US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he is dropping his administration's plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a week after the Supreme Court blocked his efforts to include the same.
He, however, said that he would issue an executive order and will ask federal agencies to provide the Commerce Department information on citizens and non-citizens in the US, The Hill reported.
Last week, the US Supreme Court had blocked the administration from putting a question on the 2020 census asking about citizenship, for the time being.
The citizenship question has not appeared on a US census for all Americans since 1950, though it has been put to some sets of the population between 1970 and 2000.
The census, that was started in 1970, is used to determine federal funds, grants and support to states.
Speaking to media persons, Trump said: "Today, I am here to say we are not backing down on our effort to determine the citizenship status of the United States population."
"I'm proud to be a citizen," Trump continued. "You're proud to be a citizen. The only people that are not proud to be citizens are the ones who are fighting us all the way about the word 'citizen'."
The Justice Department has also confirmed that it will no longer battle to include the question in the census.
Spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement the executive order "represents an alternative path to collecting the best citizenship data now available" and the department would tell the courts the administration "will not include a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census."
Trump's critics have argued in the court that the question is an attempt to intimidate non-citizen and Hispc households. They also contended that it will lead to a decline in response rates and under-representation of minorities, who typically vote for Democrats.
( With inputs from ANI )