Trump’s Plan To Stop Noncitizens From Rigging The Census Might Work This Time– thefederalist.com

The Trump administration has just made its most powerful move yet in the president’s long-running battle to ensure that the American government represents Americans.

It did so last week by proposing a rule that would require the Census Bureau to count only U.S. citizens and green card holders for apportionment purposes in the 2030 Census.

If implemented, millions of illegal aliens would no longer distort the political map. House seats and Electoral College votes would be divvied up based on population numbers reflecting the “We the People” our system exists to represent. The rule would neutralize foreign influence; eliminate the undue political power sanctuary jurisdictions have accrued through decades of mass illegal immigration; and restore the “one man, one vote” principle by ending the dilution of Americans’ voting power that has occurred through counting non-citizens in the population figures used to draw up districts.

The rule accomplishes these ends by simply modifying the Census Bureau’s so-called “residence criteria.” From the very first Census, tabulators have counted people at their “usual residence” to determine the “persons” in each state used to apportion representatives. In recent decades, the Commerce Department, which carries out the Census and devises the rules and regulations governing the count — through the Census Bureau — has included residents regardless of citizenship status. In 2020, for example, its criteria stipulated that foreigners “living in” the U.S. be counted. Under the new proposed rule, only dual nationals or lawful permanent residents would be counted “[c]ounted at their usual residence” for apportionment.