There are times when I’m convinced Trump is a dumbass and there are times when I’m convinced he’s operating on a higher plane of thought playing people in 4D chess.
This is one of those in the latter category.
From CNN:
Trump signs order targeting undocumented immigrants in the US census
President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Tuesday that would exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in congressional districts when district lines are redrawn next year.
The memorandum marks the Trump administration’s latest effort to change the way US populations are counted and advance the President’s immigration agenda. And like previous efforts, the issue will end up in court.
“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,” the order states.
For a lot of people, this makes sense in a from the gut, common sense sort of way. The House of Representatives is supposed to represent We the People of the United States. They are our Representatives, we vote for them, we pay taxes which pay for their salaries. Members of Congress are required to be US Citizens.
This immediately ticked off the Left.
https://t.co/PbzXFi99wL pic.twitter.com/4lYGl9oWik
— ACLU (@ACLU) July 21, 2020
The Left is now going to go full-tilt into “we have to include undocumented workers in Congressional apportionment.”
All Trump has to do is put numbers to this. There are roughly 22 million illegals in the US. The average Congressional seat represents roughly 700,000 people.
That means it would be possible to have 31 Members of Congress who do not represent a single US citizen or lawful resident alien as a constituent. That’s more seats than New York or Florida and almost as many as Texas.
The news has been filled with stories of law-abiding, tax-paying citizens of Californa and New York moving to Texas, Florida, Utah, Idaho, and other states.
But if we start to add in Illegal immigrants, suddenly California could gain seats, and since we are limited to 435 seats, that means that Middle America will lose seats.
That is the whole point, of course. Take seats away from Red states and give them to the urban sprawl of NYC and California to fill with Leftist place holders like AOC.
The 4D chess that Trump just engaged in is to make this part of the 2020 Campaign.
Trump: “Congress should represent American Citizens and legal immigrants.”
Democrats: “We want all 22 million undocumented immigrants to be represented by Congress.”
Pelosi: “MS-13 gang members are my constituents too.”
Moderate Middle America: “Excuse me, but what the actual fuck?”
The Democrats are just dumb enough to die on this hill demanding that illegal immigrants, no matter how recently they entered the country, are entitled to Congressional representation, not realizing just how unpalatable this is to a lot of people.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that as we are coming out of a pandemic and people are hoping to get back to work, the Democrats backing illegals to the hilt will backfire, and Trump knows this and is baiting them into it.
[…] via Trump just baited the Democrats into a serious trap — […]
Considering Trump lost the case to add a check box on the census form to identify non-citizens, this will be unenforcible. It may, however, cause the socialists to publicly go batsh*t crazy (again).
While I think the math and conclusions are right, it’s 2nd-order effect so most Americans won’t understand why it’s a problem.
It’s a non-starter, offered for public relations value, but little else.
It would take constitutional amendment to implement such a change. The constitution in Art. I, Sec. 2, Para. 3 refers to “persons” in determining representation. Similarly, the 14th amendment, in rewriting that same provision following the Civil War to eliminate the infamous “3/5th’s compromise” also used “persons,” not “citizens.” I’d actually favor such an amendment, but it has absolutely no chance of passing through Congress with a 2/3 majority. It would have to be proposed by a constitutional convention.
And in current social circumstances, I cannot imagine calling a constitutional convention. God, no.
The constitution itself did not define citizen until the 14th amendment, leaving that to the States. Only with the 14th amendment did the Constitution define all persons born in the US and subject to its jurisdiction as citizens. Of course, Congress can, and has, established a means to become a citizen even if not so born.
The real issue on the Census form was not whether Trump should have been allowed to add the check box. It is why Obama was allowed to remove it.
Unbiased America (facebook page) has data and links to the data:
California: +6 representatives (11.3% of its current representatives)
Florida: +1 representative (4.0%)
New York: +1 representative (3.4%)
Texas: +1 representative (3.1%)
And since the total number of people in the House of Representatives is currently fixed by law at 435 members, states that have fewer illegal aliens and non-citizens lose representatives as a result.
Mississippi: -1 representative (25.0% of its current representatives)
Oklahoma: -1 representative (20.0%)
Kentucky: -1 representative (16.7%)
South Carolina: -1 representative (16.7%)
Wisconsin: -1 representative (12.5%)
Indiana: -1 representative (11.1%)
Michigan: -1 representative (6.7%)
Ohio: -1 representative (5.6%)
Pennsylvania: -1 representative (5.3%)