President Trump suggested that if undocumented immigrants were given the right to vote, it could mean two or three additional congressional seats in certain US states. Census numbers are used to determine the size of electoral districts that appoint lawmakers to Congress. State legislatures also rely on the same numbers for appointments.
In “one state” where there are more than 2,2 million illegal immigrants (as in California), including them in the apportionment would result in two or three more congressional seats.
“It is the policy of the United States to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status…to the maximum extent feasible and consistent with the discretion delegated to the executive branch”, the order stated.
The US Constitution requires “persons in each State” to be included in census data, but specifically the term “inhabitants” has been misused to include illegals. It is the executive branch which determines who are the “inhabitants” of the US, and “aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status” are evidently not included.
“My Administration will not support giving congressional representation to aliens who enter or remain in the country unlawfully, because doing so would create perverse incentives and undermine our system of government”, Trump commented. “Just as we do not give political power to people who are here temporarily, we should not give political power to people who should not be here at all.”
But the US Supreme Court recently forced the Census Bureau to remove the citizenship requirement from printed census forms. Statistical estimates will therefore have to be used to prevent illegals from being included in counting.
Trump blamed the “radical left” for trying to eliminate the notion of American citizenship by concealing the real number of illegals in the country to benefit the Democratic vote.
