Tag Archives: census

Who Does Congress Represent?

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Theoretically, Congress represents the will of the American people. The House of Representatives is set up according to the population of each state–states with larger populations get more Representatives. The Senate has two Senators from every state regardless of population. The census determines what the numbers are. The law requires an American census every ten years. Some years the census has had a question regarding citizenship on its long form, and some years there was no long form. President Trump is asking that the citizenship question be added to the short form. Congress is supposed to represent Americans–not citizens of other countries who live her for various reasons. Adding the citizenship question and apportioning representatives accordingly would provide a more representative government. If non citizens are not counted in the census, California and New York would have fewer representatives in Congress and those states would receive less federal funds.

On June 30th, Just the News reported:

The Supreme Court has never made a determination on the legal merits of the argument that noncitizens should not be counted in the United States census, but may soon be forced to do so.

The fight to clarify the census and subsequently adjust congressional seats, Electoral College votes and federal funding, is coming down the pike, according to White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. 

Miller indicated last month that he’s eager to dive straight in and that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will help lead the effort. 

Trump has at his disposal a number of avenues to accomplish his goal, one of which includes Lutnick’s agency. Utilizing this route, the Commerce Department could propose adding a census question to distinguish citizens, legal permanent residents, and unauthorized immigrants, as suggested by a lawsuit filed by Republican-led states and the Department of Commerce in January 2025. The data could then be used to exclude noncitizens from apportionment, though not necessarily from the overall count. 

The article notes:

In 2020, the Trump administration sought to exclude noncitizens from the U.S. Census count which is used to apportion congressional seats and Electoral College votes, a move that sparked significant controversy. In July of that year, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum directing the Census Bureau to use administrative records to identify and exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment count, arguing that including them dilutes the political power of citizens and constitutes voter suppression.

The administration argued that the Constitution’s mandate to count “persons” did not explicitly require counting noncitizens for apportionment. This effort faced immediate legal challenges from blue states and cities, many of which were sanctuary jurisdictions, and immigrant advocacy groups, who argued the policy violated the Constitution and would discourage immigrant participation in the census, potentially undercounting communities with large noncitizen populations.

This is a battle to watch. The question is, “Who is Congress supposed to represent?”

This Is What Spin Looks Like

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On Wednesday, MSN posted the following headline:

Republicans renew efforts to limit people in US illegally from census count

The article reports:

Republican efforts to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from numbers used to divvy up congressional seats among states have begun anew, with four Republican state attorneys general suing to alter the once-a-decade head count even before President Donald Trump’s second term in office began Monday.

Trump joined in the battle immediately upon returning to office, signing an executive order on Monday that rescinded a Biden administration order and signaled the possibility of a push by his new administration to change the 2030 census. Those efforts may get a boost from the GOP-controlled Congress, where Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards from North Carolina earlier this month re-introduced legislation that would put a citizenship question on the census form.

During his first term, Trump signed an order that would have excluded people in the U.S. illegally from being included in the 2020 census numbers used to allot congressional seats and Electoral College votes to each state. The GOP president also mandated in a second order the collection of citizenship data through administrative records. A Republican redistricting expert had written that using citizen voting-age population instead of the total population for the purpose of redrawing congressional and legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.

This is not political, regardless of who benefits–it is common sense. In a representative republic, who is represented?

The question here is rather obvious, “Who are our Congressmen (and women) supposed to represent?” If a district gets an extra representative or two because of people who are non-citizens and are here illegally, the representation for people who are citizens is impacted. For example, California gets one of two extra representatives because of the number of illegal aliens that live there. Since there are only a limited number of representatives (435), a state with more citizens and fewer non-citizens will not get as many representatives. American citizens are entitled to representation in Congress. Non-citizens are not. There is no country in the world with a democracy or representative government that has a government that represents people who are not citizens. This is common sense, and the representation for illegal aliens and non-citizens needs to end.