Sorry GOP, There's Just One Problem With Your Huge Census Victory

Business Insider ^ | 12/21/2010 | Joe Weisenthal

[Lurking Libertarian]

I'm not going to do your research for you. Do it yourself, and learn something.

Translation: I can't back up anything I said, so I'll just bluster.

There is no precedent for considering illegals as part of the enumeration of the Census.

Aliens have been counted in every Census for apportionment purposes since the ratification of the 14th Amendment.

You want to live in a fantasyland where the Founders and post Civil War Republicans envisioned the United States allowing millions of foreign nationals to settle in the country and claim all the rights of Americans, go right ahead. But don't claim the Constitution as written or as Amended at the time supports your decision. It doesn't. Peddle your liberal crap elsewhere. If twelve million Mexicans had invaded the United States in 1867 they wouldn't have lived long enough to be counted in a Census. Those who managed to survive by going into hiding wouldn't have been marked down as "whole persons" by any Federal employee.

There was no such thing as an "illegal alien" in 1868, because the U.S. had no immigration laws until 1875. But the U.S. did have millions of immigrants in the 19th Century, both before and after 1875, and all were counted in the Census.

[dr_who]

...also, is the electoral college going to exist in 2012?

[Gondring]

Looks like my reply to this never posted. Well, I can't recall all I wrote, but to sum up, you hadn't defined "they" and if you look at my post, I covered both original and 14th Amendment.

The debates used "inhabitants" and terms like "whites"...and with the Great Compromise and finalizing the document, it went to "Free Persons" because that would cover free blacks, etc.

And the 14th Amendment was a modification to the original language. By using the same language, it wasn't some signal that now we were going to start counting non-inhabitants! Or foreigners!

Just think of how absurd it would be to use your interpretation. If the Census had fallen during the War of 1812, I guess we'd have had to give representation to British troops on American soil. Does harboring a fugitive from the law mean that your family should get greater benefits from the government? Etc.

Remember also, Tammany Hall worked hard to get citizenship for those immigrants, wanting to gain power from that demographic. Combine that with the natural-born citizen clause, the foreign title clause, etc., and you realize that there was never any intent to give foreigners power or representation in our governance.