Another unconstitutional power grab.
Next year’s census will determine the apportionment of House members and Electoral College votes for each state. To accomplish these vital constitutional purposes, the enumeration should count only citizens and persons who are legal, permanent residents. But it won’t.
Instead, the U.S. Census Bureau is set to count all persons physically present in the country—including large numbers who are here illegally. The result will unconstitutionally increase the number of representatives in some states and deprive some other states of their rightful political representation. Citizens of “loser” states should be outraged. Yet few are even aware of what’s going on.
In 1790, the first Census Act provided that the enumeration of that year would count “inhabitants” and “distinguish” various subgroups by age, sex, status as free persons, etc. Inhabitant was a term with a well-defined meaning that encompassed, as the Oxford English Dictionary expressed it, one who “is a bona fide member of a State, subject to all the requisitions of its laws, and entitled to all the privileges which they confer.”
Thus early census questionnaires generally asked a question that got at the issue of citizenship or permanent resident status, e.g., “what state or foreign country were you born in?” or whether an individual who said he was foreign-born was naturalized. Over the years, however, Congress and the Census Bureau have added inquiries that have little or nothing to do with census’s constitutional purpose.
……The 2010 census will use only the short form. The long form has been replaced by the Census Bureau’s ongoing American Community Survey. Dr. Elizabeth Grieco, chief of the Census Bureau’s Immigration Statistics Staff, told us in a recent interview that the 2010 census short form does not ask about citizenship because “Congress has not asked us to do that.”
Because the census (since at least 1980) has not distinguished citizens and permanent, legal residents from individuals here illegally, the basis for apportionment of House seats has been skewed. According to the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey data (2007), states with a significant net gain in population by inclusion of noncitizens include Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Texas. (There are tiny net gains for Hawaii and Massachusetts.)
This makes a real difference. Here’s why:
According to the latest American Community Survey, California has 5,622,422 noncitizens in its population of 36,264,467. Based on our round-number projection of a decade-end population in that state of 37,000,000 (including 5,750,000 noncitizens), California would have 57 members in the newly reapportioned U.S. House of Representatives.
However, with noncitizens not included for purposes of reapportionment, California would have 48 House seats (based on an estimated 308 million total population in 2010 with 283 million citizens, or 650,000 citizens per House seat). Using a similar projection, Texas would have 38 House members with noncitizens included. With only citizens counted, it would be entitled to 34 members.
……The census has drifted far from its constitutional roots, and the 2010 enumeration will result in a malapportionment of Congress.
Read the rest here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574332950796281832.html
The census is written into the Constitution. In Article I, Section 2 the US Constitution orders that:
“The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”
In addition, the Census Bureau’s legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code.
The president has no legal authority to conduct the census.
Obama, in conjuntion with ultra-left illegal alien supporters in Congress, have once again selectively violated the Constitution for their own political purposes.
Guess who else supports illegal immigration? Why, the unions, of course.
United Auto Workers position on the matter:
Establish a well-defined path, similar to that called for by President Obama, to allow immigrant and guest workers to adjust their status and eventually become permanent residents and citizens.
http://www.uaw.org/cap/09/issues/issue10.php
Union thuggery and influence had waned beginning with the 1980s, up until now. In Obama, they saw a savior for their organization, and a way to re-energize their control.
There’s one thing standing in their way: the American people. We got the message, and we don’t want it.
The best disinfectant is sunlight. The more light shown on Obama’s subversion, the better.