Proposal Would Subtract Illegal Aliens From Redistricting Count

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- State lawmakers are trying to drum up support for a congressional proposal to count only United States citizens when drawing congressional districts.

Supporters including House Speaker Jon Husted say it's unfair that states with large populations of non-citizens get more congressional seats than Ohio.

The House Rules and Reference Committee approved a resolution Tuesday encouraging Congress to amend the Constitution to make the change.

Current Census predictions say Ohio will lose two congressional seats in 2010 if the state continues to grow at a slower rate than other states, according to population trends.

"We should not empower people that are not citizens of the United States to affect how our government is run and operated," said Husted, a Dayton-area Republican.

Changing the process would not only require amending the U.S. Constitution, a long road by itself, but also overcoming opposition from states that benefit from large immigrant populations.

U.S. Rep. Candace Miller, a Michigan Republican, said the issue was one of fairness.

"There is no other country or nation on the entire planet that had anything as convoluted as we are doing here," Miller said.

The American Friends Service Committee, which advocates on behalf of immigrants, criticized the proposal as a harsh reaction to current anti-immigrant sentiment.

I don't think it is necessary to amend the Constitution in order to exclude illegal aliens from the Census count. The Constitution says that Representatives are apportioned among the states based on the number of persons in each state, and that the actual enumeration shall take place as provided by law. Now, no one has ever claimed that just because the Census is held as of April 1, 2000 that foreign tourists that happened to be at Disney World that day should be counted as residents of Florida. And the Census Bureau counts, for purposes of reapportionment, permanent U.S. residents that are temporarily outside the U.S. in military service or in the U.S. diplomatic corps, and they aren't "persons" physically "in such State" on Census Day. So Congress has the ability to limit the Census count to residents of the U.S. and to include permanent residents who are abroad on government service.

I think it would be perfectly reasonable and constitutional, and long overdue, for Congress to legislate that, for purposes of reapportionment, only permanent U.S. residents will be counted, which would exclude people in the U.S. with tourist visas or temporary visas (such as student visas, or if a guest-worker program is approved), or illegal aliens. U.S. citizens and permanent-resident aliens that are premanent residents of the U.S. would be the only persons deemed to count for purposes of reapportionment. Moreover, permanent U.S. residents who are temporarily abroad for any reason (including Mormon missionaries, who were Utah taxpayers but were unfairly excluded from the Census count and cost Utah a House seat after the 2000 Census) should count towards the reapportionment count. The law should also clarify that students will count as residents of their home state and city, not in the state and city where they are going to college.

The law could also say that the Census would still count illegal aliens and people on temporary non-tourist visas for other Census purposes, such as predicting how many people will need public transportation, how many children may need nutritional assistance, etc.; I don't have a problem with that, and it would allay fears that non-permanent resident aliens will become "invisible" to the government. But only people who reside in the U.S. both legally and permanently should count when we reapportion House seats among the states.

"Anyone living in the area, legally or illegally, citizen or non-citizen resident, under-18 or legal voter, is counted according to the Constitution."

Not necessarily true, and it is subject to a Supreme Court interpretation should it ever be argued up to that level

As per the 14th Amendment, written to change the provision that Negroes were only counted as 3/5ths a person to reduce the clout of southern slave states, ". . .the whole number of persons in each state" invites further definition.

The Court could conclude that illegal aliens are temporary residents, just as military and tourists are considered not residents in the place they may happen to be, but in their normal home of residence.

A Court that can find "privacy" in the Constitution based on "emanations of penumbras" could find anything on the definition of persons.

"Are the non-taxed Native Americans on reservations in Arizona, the Dakotas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and other states really not counted for apportionment?"

I thought that all Native Americans who weren't already U.S. citizens became U.S. citizens in the early 20th Century and became subject to federal taxes; perhaps they aren't subject to taxes on their income earned within the reservation, but they are no longer "not taxed."

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