If SCOTUS Bans Illegals From The Census, Dems Could Lose Power For Years
Ben Weingarten visit on Twitter @bhweingarten
Census figures used for congressional apportionment, redistricting, and redistributing federal funds have historically counted illegal aliens.
There are many drivers behind the new nullification crisis that the left is stoking over immigration, but perhaps the most significant political one is that the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy poses a greater threat to Democrat Party power than perhaps any other single initiative.
If federal authorities were to successfully remove millions of illegal aliens from the country, some estimates suggest it would result in the reallocation of nearly a dozen House seats and electoral college votes. Billions of dollars in taxpayer funding would be redirected out of blue states and into red ones
That is because the census figures used for congressional apportionment, redistricting, and redistributing federal funds have historically counted all residents including illegal aliens. On balance, this has benefited Democrat-led states — where such populations are largely though not exclusively concentrated — over Republican-led ones.
The projected outmigration of citizens from blue to red states would compound the negative effect of the deportations for Democrats as we head towards the 2030 census, potentially swinging control of the House and the presidency in Republicans’ favor going forward.
Missouri Case
Thus, defeating the Trump administration’s immigration policy by any means necessary may be seen as an existential imperative by the left. The Minnsurrectionists and their comrades-in-arms across the country, including in the courts, are trying to stymie the president’s deportation push. But Missouri has just filed a lawsuit that could provide critical insurance against the continued distortion of our political system by the non-citizens who might remain.
Missouri claims that by counting illegal aliens and temporary visa holders during the 2020 census, federal authorities robbed it of one House seat. Should that practice persist, it alleges the feds will rob it of another such seat following the 2030 census. Asserting that the counting of these populations in the census, and apportioning accordingly “steals federal representation from Missourians and transfers it to States who artificially inflate their population by harboring illegal aliens,” the Show-Me state is challenging the practice’s constitutionality and legality.
Missouri seeks to prevent federal authorities from unduly awarding an estimated 11 House seats and electoral votes in 2030 to left-leaning states with large illegal alien populations, such as California, Illinois, and Massachusetts. If successful, the Census Bureau would count only Americans and legal permanent residents in the census.
The state has asked the court to both prohibit the federal government from including non-citizens in the 2030 census and 2031 apportionment base tabulations, and direct authorities to redo the 2020 census and 2021 apportionment calculations to exclude such populations, and transmit the results to the state — presumably for retroactive correction.