Republicans Seek to Change Census, Reap Benefits

The impact of a bill that would add a citizenship question to future census forms while preventing noncitizens from being counted in House of Representatives and Electoral College apportionment could swing control of the House, or even a presidential election, after the 2030 census, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.

The Republican-backed bill, called the Equal Representation Act, is being considered in the House this week.

Studies have shown that apportioning representatives based only on U.S. citizens would have a net positive effect for the Republican Party.

Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, who co-sponsored the bill, argued that apportioning representation to illegal immigrants rewards the Biden administration’s open-border policies and creates an incentive to bring even more noncitizens into the U.S.

But the 14th Amendment says that the House will “be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state,” making no mention of legal or voting status, according to the Washington Enquirer.

President Joe Biden emphasized that point in opposing the legislation, saying in a statement that his administration “is committed to ensuring that the census remains as accurate as possible and free from political interference, and to upholding the longstanding principle of equal representation enshrined in our Constitution, census statutes, and historical tradition.”

For the bill’s advocates, another important factor is that the legislation would remove an incentive for sanctuary jurisdiction to attract undocumented migrants in the first place.

But Democrat-led states had argued that adding a citizenship question would make it less likely that immigrants complete the census, thus making the count less accurate.

The Trump administration attempted to add such a citizenship question to the 2020 census only to have that effort denied by the Supreme Court.