In his first 100 days in office, President Donald Trump has ended the crisis at our southern border. Customs and Border Protection declared in March that we now have “the most secure border in history.” As Trump famously quipped at the State of the Union, it turns out we didn’t need new legislation, we just needed a new president.
Why, then, would any president want millions of unvetted illegal immigrants to enter freely into the United States? Why would an entire political party defend, and deny the perils of, the porous border presided over by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris?
The only explanation is the advantages this gives Democrats in the decennial census. It’s not sexy, but it’s the entire point.
The core constitutional purpose of the decennial census is to arrive at the “actual enumeration” of the people of each state so the inhabitants of each state are fairly and adequately represented in Congress and the Electoral College. When Democrat-run sanctuary states and cities induce population growth of illegal immigrants — who can currently be counted in the census — they understand the census will apportion in their favor. As the population of illegal immigrants in a sanctuary state swells, so too does that state’s congressional delegation and its Electoral College effect. The more people in the state, the more seats in Congress and the Electoral College. This means more spending, more representation, and more power for that state. Conversely, this means less of all three for the rest of us living in law-abiding states.
The census is essentially a cascade of delegation from the U.S. Constitution (Section 2 of Article I and the 14th Amendment), to Congress (Census Act), to the executive branch (Census Bureau), to the secretary of commerce (report to the president), to the president’s report to Congress.
So do we have to count illegal immigrants for census apportionment? No, we do not. Illegal immigrants enjoy many rights and privileges while unlawfully in the United States. But being counted for apportionment should not be one of them.
The 14th Amendment requires, “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state.” It was not until the 1980s that illegal immigration became a significant issue in the United States. In response, Congress asked the Department of Justice for an opinion letter on two bills seeking to exclude illegal aliens from census apportionment. The opinion letter was written by Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Thomas Boyd (“Boyd Letter”). Unfortunately, Boyd’s response to Congress declared both laws would likely be unconstitutional.
Hellbound and Down 