The House of Representatives voted to add a citizenship question to the census and block illegal immigrants from skewing the redistricting and Electoral College apportionment processes.
In a 206 to 202 vote, the lower chamber passed the Equal Representation Act Wednesday along party lines, but the measure is expected to be dead on arrival in the Senate.
“Including the count of non-US citizens in determining how many congressional seats and electoral votes each state has is skewing the representation of Americans in their federal government,” Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Ill.) said in a statement.
Edwards introduced the bill back in January and attached well over 100 co-sponsors.
Underpinning the legislation is the fact that every decade, following the census, states revisit their congressional maps and either lose or gain seats based on population changes.
The last decennial apportionment process largely wrapped up ahead of the 2022 midterm election cycle, with a handful of lingering redistricting court battles still pending.
“The mere presence of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is influencing electoral outcomes, and the Equal Representation Act that the House passed would protect our democracy by making sure that American citizens – and American citizens only – have a say in determining the direction of our country,” Edwards added.
Critics of the bill contended highlighted calls in the Constitution to count “persons” in the country and fretted that adding the question to the census could scare off honest responses.
They further grumbled that permanent residents such as Green Card carriers could get roped out of the apportionment process. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) posited that the status quo benefits Republicans.
“If we were being cynical politically, we would embrace this legislation because it’s the red states like Texas in Florida, whose congressional delegation is already inflated by virtue of counting people who are not citizens,” Raskin said on the House floor.
“We’re simply trying to follow what the Constitution says, which I know is kind of a radical proposition around here these days.”
Raskin further claimed that Republicans needed to amend the Constitution to address their concerns about the census.
The 14th Amendment states: “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State.”
Former President Donald Trump unsuccessfully sought to tack on a citizenship question to the census back while he was still in office.
However, the Supreme Court ultimately scuttled that endeavor back in 2019. Trump’s administration then attempted to find workarounds to gauge the population of noncitizens.
“Biden’s disastrous and intentional border crisis has resulted in millions of criminal migrants crossing our borders illegally and we must take steps to preserve the integrity of our elections,” Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement.
“The Equal Representation Act will protect the voices of law-abiding American citizens by ensuring they are properly represented. I am proud to have cosponsored and voted in favor of this bill, it is just one measure of many we must take to ensure election security and our votes are protected.”
The next decennial census is slated to take place in 2030.
