California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday went bonkers over President Donald Trump’s executive order that excludes illegal aliens from being counted for functions of congressional apportioning, data coming from the census.
“Counting every person in our country through the Census is a principle so foundational that it is written into our Constitution,” Newsom said in a statement. “This latest action by the administration to exclude undocumented immigrants when determining representation in Congress, rooted in racism and xenophobia, is a blatant attack on our institutions and our neighbors.”
Notice how this clown governor calls them “undocumented” instead of illegal? Governor clown also went with the usual Democrat model of blaming racism and xenophobia, because they know Trump is right and they are being political.
Here’s why illegal aliens should not be included in congressional apportionment. Illegal aliens, despite Democrat push back, are still not citizens, and therefore do not have the right to vote for people they want to represent them in Congress. It’s called a republic, where the citizens elect their representatives.
Since illegal aliens are here illegally, they do not have the right to representation over citizens who do.
We have a system that remedies this, it’s called our immigration system. People come into the country legally, and then apply for citizenship. Once they become citizens they have every legal right to tell the world who they want to represent them. That’s how it works and how it should work, but Democrats want to devalue your citizenship.
On Tuesday, President Trump signed the order, saying the memorandum is designed to bar “illegal aliens from the apportionment base following the 2020 Census.”
The memorandum has brought lawsuits as it follows the Department of Commerce losing a Supreme Court case last year the place it tried to include a question about citizenship status on the 2020 census. Even though there was a citizenship question in the past, including during the Obama administration, Democrats were quick to point out that while the Constitution mentions a census, it doesn’t specifically say it must be citizens, because the Founders believed that was understood. No nation counts non citizens as citizens, and so our Founding Fathers never dreamed there would be people unscrupulous enough to make that argument, but such is the modern-day leftist.
Nonetheless, the memorandum stated that the Constitution does not require undocumented immigrants to be counted for the purpose of apportionment of the House of Representatives.
The order claims that the president has the final word over transmitting the census report to Congress and that the Constitution grants the executive branch the authority to “exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status.”
“The discretion delegated to the executive branch to determine who qualifies as an ‘inhabitant’ includes authority to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in lawful immigration status,” the memorandum states. “For the purpose of the reapportionment of Representatives following the 2020 census, its is the policy of the United States to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status under the Immigration and Nationality Act… Excluding these illegal aliens from the apportionment base is more consonant with the principles of representative democracy underpinning our system of government.”
Specifically, the memorandum points out California as “one State” that “is home to more than 2.2 million illegal aliens, representing more than 6% of the state’s entire population.”
Trump said the order will push back on the “radical left” from trying to “conceal the number of illegal aliens in our country.”
There’s a different reason why Democrats wanted their illegal aliens included in the census to begin with, and that’s because federal and state grants are based on population numbers. The dirty little Democrat secret is the amount of money that comes in the form of grants is based the size of the population, so Democrats, who know they can’t legally spend the federal dollars on illegal aliens, are still exploiting them for getting extra money for their citizens. Either way you slice it, Democrats are using illegal aliens for their own political gains, and that’s just creepy and dishonest. If I thought like a Democrat I would also call it racist.
Here’s what the memorandum says:
In order to apportion Representatives among the States, the Constitution requires the enumeration of the population of the United States every 10 years and grants the Congress the power and discretion to direct the manner in which this decennial census is conducted (U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 2, cl. 3). The Congress has charged the Secretary of Commerce (the Secretary) with directing the conduct of the decennial census in such form and content as the Secretary may determine (13 U.S.C. 141(a)). By the direction of the Congress, the Secretary then transmits to the President the report of his tabulation of total population for the apportionment of Representatives in the Congress (13 U.S.C. 141(b)). The President, by law, makes the final determination regarding the “whole number of persons in each State,” which determines the number of Representatives to be apportioned to each State, and transmits these determinations and accompanying census data to the Congress (2 U.S.C. 2a(a)). The Congress has provided that it is “the President’s personal transmittal of the report to Congress” that “settles the apportionment” of Representatives among the States, and the President’s discretion to settle the apportionment is more than “ceremonial or ministerial” and is essential “to the integrity of the process” (Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U.S. 788, 799, and 800 (1992)).
The Constitution does not specifically define which persons must be included in the apportionment base. Although the Constitution requires the “persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed,” to be enumerated in the census, that requirement has never been understood to include in the apportionment base every individual physically present within a State’s boundaries at the time of the census. Instead, the term “persons in each State” has been interpreted to mean that only the “inhabitants” of each State should be included. Determining which persons should be considered “inhabitants” for the purpose of apportionment requires the exercise of judgment. For example, aliens who are only temporarily in the United States, such as for business or tourism, and certain foreign diplomatic personnel are “persons” who have been excluded from the apportionment base in past censuses. Conversely, the Constitution also has never been understood to exclude every person who is not physically “in” a State at the time of the census. For example, overseas Federal personnel have, at various times, been included in and excluded from the populations of the States in which they maintained their homes of record. The discretion delegated to the executive branch to determine who qualifies as an “inhabitant” includes authority to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status.
In Executive Order 13880 of July 11, 2019 (Collecting Information About Citizenship Status in Connection With the Decennial Census), I instructed executive departments and agencies to share information with the Department of Commerce, to the extent permissible and consistent with law, to allow the Secretary to obtain accurate data on the number of citizens, non-citizens, and illegal aliens in the country. As the Attorney General and I explained at the time that order was signed, data on illegal aliens could be relevant for the purpose of conducting the apportionment, and we intended to examine that issue.
Sec. 2. Policy. For the purpose of the reapportionment of Representatives following the 2020 census, it is the policy of the United States to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status under the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), to the maximum extent feasible and consistent with the discretion delegated to the executive branch. Excluding these illegal aliens from the apportionment base is more consonant with the principles of representative democracy underpinning our system of Government. Affording congressional representation, and therefore formal political influence, to States on account of the presence within their borders of aliens who have not followed the steps to secure a lawful immigration status under our laws undermines those principles. Many of these aliens entered the country illegally in the first place. Increasing congressional representation based on the presence of aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status would also create perverse incentives encouraging violations of Federal law. States adopting policies that encourage illegal aliens to enter this country and that hobble Federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws passed by the Congress should not be rewarded with greater representation in the House of Representatives. Current estimates suggest that one State is home to more than 2.2 million illegal aliens, constituting more than 6 percent of the State’s entire population. Including these illegal aliens in the population of the State for the purpose of apportionment could result in the allocation of two or three more congressional seats than would otherwise be allocated.
I have accordingly determined that respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President’s discretion under the law.
Sec. 3. Excluding Illegal Aliens from the Apportionment Base. In preparing his report to the President under section 141(b) of title 13, United States Code, the Secretary shall take all appropriate action, consistent with the Constitution and other applicable law, to provide information permitting the President, to the extent practicable, to exercise the President’s discretion to carry out the policy set forth in section 2 of this memorandum. The Secretary shall also include in that report information tabulated according to the methodology set forth in Final 2020 Census Residence Criteria and Residence Situations, 83 Fed. Reg. 5525 (Feb. 8, 2018).
Rich is syndicated opinion columnist for David Harris Jr. and owner of Maga-Chat.com. He writes about politics, culture, liberty and faith.
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