You’re correct but liberals contend it’ll scare illegals and they won’t fill it out, I believe many will just lie and check the U.S. citizen box.
Once can see how that ultimately would turn out poorly for Democrats.
Consider, if illegal aliens falsely claim to be citizens on the census, then the number of non-citizens will be undercounted. From this population will be derived the number of illegal aliens, and from that number will be based the debate on amnesty.
If there is to be some preliminary steps toward legalizing illegal aliens that includes them registering, and if the count of illegal alien registrants blows away the estimates based on the false census, then Democrats will be blamed for foisting another "IllegalCare" on the nation, that is, promising a small impact when the true impact is yuge.
It's too bad, however, that our feckless Republicans will not press this issue against Democrats; they will roll over and take the blame.
-PJ