President says to leave out ‘illegal immigrants’ in census
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday directed his administration to exclude immigrants who are in the United States illegally when calculating how many seats in Congress each state gets after the current census, a decision that critics denounced as unconstitutional and one that will likely face a swift court challenge.
The president’s directive, which would adopt a practice never before used in U.S. history, faces several major hurdles — legal, logistical and political.
If successfully carried out, however, it could have far-reaching effects by reducing the political clout of states with significant numbers of immigrants, including California and Texas. It could also shift power toward whiter, more rural areas of states at the expense of more diverse cities.
According to a presidential memo released by the White House on Tuesday, census workers would continue counting immigrants who are in the country illegally, but they would not be factored into decisions about congressional representation. The Census Bureau would have five months to come up with a way to accurately estimate the number of residents illegally in each state in order to subtract them from the overall count.
“Respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base,” the memo says.
Trump followed up his memo with a statement claiming there’s “a broader left-wing effort to erode the rights of American citizens.”
“My administration will not support giving congressional representation to aliens who enter or remain in the country unlawfully, because doing so would create perverse incentives and undermine our system of government,” he said. “Just as we do not give political power to people who are here temporarily, we should not give political power to people who should not be here at all.”
Excluding immigrants in the U.S. illegally from the count would likely cost California at least one congressional seat, maybe more, demographers say. Texas also likely would lose representation, while states with few immigrants, including Alabama and Montana, most likely would gain.
Democrats and civil rights organizations blasted Trump’s decision as illegal and harmful.
“This order isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and will be struck down by the courts,” said a statement from Sen. Charles E. Schumer, DN.Y., the Senate minority leader.