Bush, Obama-Appointed Judges Rule Illegal Aliens Must Be Counted in Congressional Apportionment
Three federal judges have ruled that illegal aliens must be counted in congressional apportionment, a setback for President Trump’s administration that had sought to level the playing field in congress for states with few illegal aliens.
In July, Trump issued a memorandum to exclude illegal aliens from congressional apportionment counts. The move would ensure American citizens receive proper representation in Congress, without being minimized by apportionment counts inflated by the illegal alien population.
Congressional seats and electoral college votes are currently divided up by counting all persons in each district, including illegal aliens. This allows states such as California, New York, and Florida to receive more congressional seats and electoral college votes, while diluting political power in states with small illegal alien populations.
States such as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia are projected to lose congressional seats if the illegal alien population is included in congressional apportioning.
United States Circuit Judge Richard Wesley and Judge Peter Hall, both appointed by President George W. Bush, and District Judge Jesse Furman, appointed by President Barack Obama, ruled last week that excluding illegal aliens from congressional apportionments is “unlawful.”
The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Within weeks of Trump’s memorandum, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit, along with other open borders advocacy groups. Still ongoing is the state of Alabama’s lawsuit that seeks to exclude illegal aliens from congressional apportionment on the grounds that it dilutes the representation of states with few illegal aliens.
The U.S. Census Bureau is expected to release estimates on the citizen, legal resident, and illegal alien populations in the near future. That data will be used for congressional apportionment and dividing up electoral college votes.
Today, there are an estimated 11 million to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. The Census estimates that based on current legal and illegal immigration levels, by 2060 about one-in-six residents will have been born outside the country.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case number is 1:20-cv-05770-JMF.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.