Posted on 10/07/2007 3:05:37 PM PDT by crazyshrink
Immigrant-induced reapportionment is different from reapportionment caused when natives relocate to other states. Immigration takes away representation from states composed almost entirely of U.S. citizens and results in the creation of new districts in states with large numbers of non-citizens.
The numbers are even larger in some districts — 43 percent of the population in California’s immigrant-heavy 31st district is made up of non-citizens, while in the 34th district, 38 percent are non-citizens. In Florida’s 21st district, 28 percent of the population is non-citizen, and in New York’s 12th district the number is 23 percent.
At present it is not clear whether the Constitution requires non-citizens to be counted for apportionment, but it is clear that any attempt to exclude them would result in years of litigation.
Large non-citizen populations take voting power from Americans and give it to other American citizens in high-immigration districts.
(Excerpt) Read more at mnforsustain.org ...
How can non-citizens be counted for the purposes of representation? If they are here legally, then sure. Illegals have no right to representation in the US government.
Can anybody give me a convincing argument why any foreigners should have ANYTHING to say about how the U.S. Governemnt is constituted? Shall we also include all foreign students that attend our universities? Should we also allow the millions of foreign tourists who just happen to be in the country at election time a voice in selecting our government representatives? What the hey! Lets just go all the way and accept absentee ballots from everybody, everywhere. The whole thing is going down the tubes anyway.
Technically, we don’t don’t count legal foreigners here for those reasons in the census used mainly for re-apportionment of the House.
Technically it is like the law, it is only good if it is enforced! Same as illegal border crosings.
According to my research, the census does little to establish if the persons counted are US citizens. When they do, using the Census long form, lying about citizenship status would be expected.
By the way, The House can change the rules to disallow certain groups of non-citizens from being counted as part of its reapportionment process.
“How can non-citizens be counted for the purposes of representation?”
The Constitution does not differentiate between citizens and non-citizens and the provision for the census only requires that all persons be counted. Right now each congressman represents about 690,000 people. California with its millions of illegal aliens, gets 3-4 additional representatives because of them. Texan and Florida and New York also get more representatives because of them.
This should be taken to court by some conservative group. Foreigners should have no representation here........period.
With upwards of 20 million illegals running about, it seems that only those who want to, can see them and count them accurately. That does not include the government, which apportions representation and federal funds based on numbers contrary to its own.
Either on the form or in personal interviews, whether someone is a citizen is indeed asked.
Having worked for the Census and worked in areas obviously filled with illegal immigrants, in personal interviews with such people, I never, ever, ever, ever saw any claim to be citizens. They'd say they were not citizens but immediately add "I have a green card" (whether someone is in the country illegally or not, obviously, is not asked by the Census.)
It wouldn't be remotely realistic for Census workers to actually investigate citizenship status.
We basically agree. I don’t believe previous census counts were as contentious over illegals as this one is likely to become. The mere fact that we are discussing this in ‘07 lends some credence for me.
Congress has the authority to change the rules to exclude illegals and other non-citizens. And you are right, it would likely cause a tremendous political strain as well as a nasty strain on census workers.
The article I posted does a good job of pointing out the pitfalls of changing the census reporting req’s.
Must also include visitors, tourists, hitchhikers.
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