Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach discussed adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census with Donald Trump s advisers during the 2016 presidential campaign, he told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform this week. Kobach also discussed adding the question with Trump and his top advisers, including Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus , shortly after the president was inaugurated.

The conversations add additional context to the Trump administration s controversial decision to add the citizenship question to the upcoming census. Emails made public as part of ongoing litigation show Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was interested in adding the question shortly after he was confirmed in 2017 and aggressively pushed for it after. It is not known what piqued Ross interest in adding the question.

The Trump administration says it needs the question on the census so it can better enforce the Voting Rights Act. But critics say that its real intent is to decrease political power in states with large immigrant populations. Ross was interested in adding the question long before the Trump administration offered that rationale in December of 2017, the emails show.

The early discussions with Kobach, known for his anti-immigration views and support for voting restrictions, will likely add additional evidence for those who say the voting rights rationale was a pretext.