Respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base”

Donald Trump (July 21, 2020)

After being rebuked by the Supreme Court when he tried to have the 2020 census exclude undocumented aliens, President Trump has predictably sought new ways to circumvent both the intent and spirit of the U.S. Constitution’s requirement for an accurate 2020 national census to count all people living in the country.

Pursuant to Article I Section II of the U.S. Constitution, an “actual enumeration” of the population … both citizens and non-citizens … every 10 years is required in order to apportion seats in the House of Representatives among the states.  As important, states and localities also use census data for redistricting and drawing political boundary lines for their legislatures and other government districts.  The allocation of multi-trillions of federal dollars is also determined by the results of the census.

For a president who claims to be a great patriot, he not only ducked the draft due to an alleged bone spur and fails to respect the Congress as a co-equal branch of our federal government … but also continues to ignore or thwart the clear language and intent of the Constitution, to which he took an sacred oath to “support and defend.” 

Donald Trump’s obvious goal, together with many other Republicans, has nothing to do with “the protection of the democratic process.” 

To the contrary, it is specifically designed to discourage undocumented people living in America from participating in the census for fear of identification and possible deportation and because Republicans are terrified true census figures can have a potentially chilling effect on GOP representation in Congress and in state legislatures during the next decade.

The president cannot be allowed to dictate to the Census Bureau how the counts are to be made and reported. 

The integrity of our democracy is directly secured by respect for and adherence to the requirements on and limitations imposed by and protections of individual liberties and freedoms afforded by our Constitution.