It shouldn\u2019t even be debatable, but the U.S. Department of Justice wants the next national Census to count the number of U.S. citizens as accurately as possible.Open-borders groups — in their relentless crusade to blur the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants \u2013 assail the DOJ\u2019s request for a Census question about citizenship status as naive, nativist and unfair.<\/p>\n
In reality, failing to make the query would be worse than sticking one\u2019s head in the sand. Willful ignorance makes a mockery out of the country\u2019s decennial head count.<\/p>\n
At this writing, no one knows how many illegal aliens live here. FAIR\u2019s best estimate is 12.5 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n A state breakdown of that number is significant because California, Texas and Florida \u2013 home to the nation\u2019s largest populations of illegal aliens — stand to expand their clout in Congress. Congressional district allocations are based on raw Census data that do not disaggregate by legal status.<\/p>\n According to FAIR research:<\/p>\n A Census that properly distinguishes between legal and illegal residents would give Congress a better fix on the population that\u2019s legally present and eligible to vote.<\/p>\n Attorney General Jeff Sessions says DOJ particularly \u201cneeds a reliable calculation of the citizen voting-age population in localities where voting rights violations<\/a> are alleged of suspected.\u201d<\/p>\n Money, real money, is also in play. States with large illegal-alien populations receive disproportionately bigger slices of government funds distributed on the basis of inflated Census counts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just political representation, which is bad enough, but allocation of federal money,\u201d notes FAIR media director Ira Mehlman.<\/p>\n The nation’s immigrant population — legal and illegal \u2013 grew an estimated 3.8 million since the 2010 Census, hitting a record 43.7 million<\/a> as of July 2016.<\/p>\n The Census Bureau is evaluating the Justice Department\u2019s request. A final list of questions for the 2020 Census must be submitted to Congress by the end of March. \n