Trump Says Don’t Count Illegal Aliens For Reapportionment

On Tuesday 7/21/20 President Trump signed a memorandum saying "My Administration will not support giving congressional representation to aliens who enter or remain in the country unlawfully, because doing so would create perverse incentives and undermine our system of government,...just as we do not give political power to people who are here temporarily, we should not give political power to people who should not be here at all."

Insert latest Trump Legal Challenge here.  Congressional Democrats already have.

Every ten years, the Census head count is used to divide up the population into Congressional Districts.

A quick wikipedia civics reminder is in order about now: The number of voting seats in the House of Representatives was capped in 1929 at 435.  Divide the population by 435 and as of May 2016, there is one representative for approximately every 720,000 people in the country. 

The 2012 elections were the first to be based on the congressional districts which were defined based on the 2010 Census. Based on population shifts, immigration-legal and not, the new count resulted in 8 states gaining seats and 10 states losing seats. Washington State picked up new Congressional District as did Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Utah. Florida gained two and Texas gained four.

States losing a Congressional Seat were Illinois. Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  New York and Ohio lost two seats each.

Washington's estimated illegal alien population was estimated to be about 240-thousand in 2016.  Did those individuals help Washington get the extra seat 8 years ago?  Washington's 10th Congressional District is made up of most of Pierce County, nearly all of Thurston County and a portion of Mason County and is currently represented by Congressman Denny Heck.

So how will the President's decision affect allocating representation, federal financial resources and political power?  Those states with the largest illegal alien populations would see a reduction of representation and political clout.

https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/u-s-unauthorized-immigrants-by-state/

California has an estimated 2.2-million illegal residents.  That's 3 Congressional District's worth of humanity.  Texas has more than a million and a half which is 2 extra seats and Florida has 775,000 which is enough for an extra Congressman or woman.

What do you think?  Remember, the President said, "just as we do not give political power to people who are here temporarily, we should not give political power to people who should not be here at all."  Do you agree?