The U.S. Census Bureau will now count refugees and border releases in its population estimates, a move that will affect congressional apportionment forecasts and demographic data. In a blog post Thursday announcing the change, the bureau noted, “a net of 2.8 million people migrated to the United States between 2023 and 2024. This is significantly higher than our previous estimates.”
The data offers a glimpse of how congressional apportionment maps could change by 2030. It also shows how, as U.S. citizens flee states with garbage leftist policies, the inclusion of noncitizens in census data allows those states to keep congressional seats because their population is propped up by illegal aliens. //
Domestically, people are leaving Democrat-led states in droves. California is down 239,575 domestically, but it gained 361,057 internationally. New York lost 120,917 people domestically and gained 207,161 internationally. Illegal immigration is slowing the loss of population and congressional seats in blues states. //
The 14th Amendment requires that “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state.” The “whole number” has traditionally been understood to provide congressional representation for every person in a district, not just citizens eligible to vote.
“Generally, we should want an apportionment that best reflects the people of the United States and where they live,” Kincaid said. “If people are voting with their feet and moving from California to Florida, that should be reflected in our apportionment.”
The new numbers illustrate how illegal immigration can shape the balance of power for U.S. voters.
The Census Bureau asks about citizenship in its annual American Community Survey, but asking about citizenship on its 10-year census became a political issue in 2018 when President Donald Trump called on the bureau to put the question “Are you a U.S. citizen?” back on the census, as it had been in past years. As Federalist contributor Ben Weingarten reported at the time, Democrats fought the request. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Trump on a technicality, and the question was not used in 2020.
