A bill that would require citizenship to be asked during the 2030 U.S. Census is approved by the House of Representatives.
This would mean that illegal immigrants and noncitizens will not be taken into account when determining the number of representatives and federal electors that each state will have.
Along party lines, the Equal Representation Act was approved by the House by a vote of 206 to 202. The Senate is the next step.
The bill’s January introducer, Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., referred to it as “commonsense” that only citizens of the United States should be considered for representation.
As of right now, redistricting counts everyone who takes part in the census every ten years, including non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants.
“One of the lesser acknowledged, but equally alarming, side effects of this administration’s failure to secure the southern border is the illegal immigrant population’s influence in America’s electoral process,” Edwards stated on the House floor on Wednesday.
“Though commonsense dictates that only citizens should be counted for apportionment purposes, illegal aliens have nonetheless recently been counted toward the final tallies that determine how many House seats each state is allocated and the number of electoral votes it will wield in presidential elections,” Edwards continued.
