{"id":23268,"date":"2020-07-27T13:46:23","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T17:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23268"},"modified":"2020-07-27T13:46:26","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T17:46:26","slug":"census-trump-presidential-memo-analysis-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/07\/27\/census-trump-presidential-memo-analysis-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Excluding Illegal Aliens from Congressional Reapportionment Is Common Sense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On July 21, President Trump issued a memorandum<\/a> to the Secretary of Commerce to exclude illegal aliens from the congressional reapportionment base following the 2020 national census. Not surprisingly, various left-wing \u201cimmigrant rights\u201d advocacy groups immediately threatened to sue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)<\/a>, for instance, claimed the action was \u201cpatently unconstitutional\u201d and an \u201cattack on immigrant communities.\u201d Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California \u2013 a state with the largest illegal alien population (3 million out of 14.3 million in the entire U.S.), and therefore the most to lose \u2013 also reacted predictably to the memo. Claiming it was \u201crooted in racism and xenophobia,\u201d Newsom said in a statement<\/a> that it \u201ca blatant attack on our institutions and our neighbors.\u201d The reality, however, is that the principle at the heart of the presidential memo is common sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every 10 years \u2013 as mandated in Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution<\/a> \u2013 the Department of Commerce conducts a nationwide count of every person living in the United States. The decennial census<\/a> determines the size of each state\u2019s congressional House delegation, as well as the votes each state can cast in the Electoral College. It also determines the distribution of federal funding for various programs to the states, including Highway Planning and Construction, Medicaid, SNAP (\u201cfood stamps\u201d), the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, and Head Start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, states with larger populations, such as California and New York, have more elected federal representatives, more presidential electors, and also receive more in federal funding. They also happen to have larger populations of foreign nationals and illegal alien residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact such states are essentially rewarded with\nmore power and money clearly encourages them to pursue policies that benefit,\nshield, and attract people who violated our laws and borders to get here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most notoriously perverse incentives in this context are sanctuary policies,<\/a> These jurisdictions flout federal immigration laws and, all too often, seem to prefer to release dangerous illegal alien criminals<\/a> to prey on the public (including frequently other illegal aliens) rather than cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After all, it is usually ordinary people \u2013 not the pro-sanctuary politicians \u2013 that suffer from the negative aspects of these irresponsible and reckless policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, states that respect federal immigration\nlaws and have smaller illegal alien populations are effectively penalized when\nillegal aliens count towards congressional reapportionment. Since there is a\nfixed number of seats in Congress and of presidential electors, they may lose\nboth representation and funding to pro-illegal-alien states. Thus, even though\nunauthorized foreign nationals may not legally vote, their mere presence \u2013\nespecially in significant numbers \u2013 still indirectly dilutes the vote of the\naverage American citizen in many states and thereby distorts the electoral\nprocess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opponents of President Trump\u2019s common-sense proclamation claim that it is unconstitutional. For example, Gov. Newsom asserted in his statement that \u201ccounting every person in our country through the Census is a principle so foundational that it is written into our Constitution.\u201d Of course, \u201ccounting every person in our country\u201d is one thing; counting them toward the congressional reapportionment base is quite another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The founding document is itself rather vague on this issue, mentioning<\/a> only the \u201cwhole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.\u201d However, as the presidential proclamation makes clear, \u201cthe President, by law, makes the final determination regarding the \u2018whole number of persons in each State,\u2019 which determines the number of Representatives to be apportioned to each State.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The executive memo also emphasizes that \u201cdetermining\nwhich persons should be considered \u2018inhabitants\u2019 for the purpose of\napportionment requires the exercise of judgment.\u201d Thus, \u201caliens who are only\ntemporarily in the United States, such as for business or tourism, and certain\nforeign diplomatic personnel are \u2018persons\u2019 who have been excluded from the\napportionment base in past censuses.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, there is a long and rational practice\nof not counting every single person who happens to find themselves on U.S.\nterritory, and within a certain state at the time of the census, towards\nreapportionment. And, unlike illegal aliens, the excluded persons \u2013 be they\ntourists, foreigners on a temporary business trip, or diplomats \u2013 at the very\nleast have a legal right to be in the country<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counting illegal aliens to know how many are in the\nUnited States is important. As Americans, we have the right to know this. However,\nthere is no logical or compelling reason why states with large numbers of\nunauthorized foreign nationals \u2013 that is, again, people who violated our laws\nand borders \u2013 should benefit from more representation and funding than states\nthat respect the rule of law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 21, President Trump issued a memorandum to the Secretary of Commerce to exclude illegal aliens from the congressional reapportionment base following the 2020 national census. Not surprisingly, various left-wing \u201cimmigrant rights\u201d advocacy groups immediately threatened to sue. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), for instance, claimed the action was \u201cpatently unconstitutional\u201d and an<\/p>\n

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