The Attorney General’s office in Missouri filed a lawsuit on Friday (January 30th) aiming to exclude illegal immigrants and temporary visa holders from being counted in the 2020 U.S. Census data in future counts to prevent them from being included in the population figures.
In this case, the Missouri Attorney General’s office accused the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau of allowing illegal immigrants to be included in the population census data, which they claim has damaged the integrity of U.S. elections. They are requesting a recalculation of the 2020 census data.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway described this lawsuit as one of the most significant election lawsuits in decades. She stated in a press release, “Only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are entitled to representation, while illegal immigrants and temporary visa holders are not. Missouri and its voters can no longer ignore their right to self-governance and fair representation being continually denied.”
The Missouri Attorney General’s office pointed out that U.S. citizens are the sole source of governmental power and that the current policy of including illegal immigrants in the census data by the Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce is both illegal and unconstitutional.
Hanaway’s office stated that states that enforce immigration laws are being stripped of representation in federal government, while so-called “sanctuary states” such as California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland benefit by gaining more congressional seats, electoral votes, and funding as a result.
Hundreds of federal welfare programs rely on accurate census data for distributing funding. Since the Carter administration in 1980, illegal immigrants and temporary visa holders have been included in U.S. census data, violating the intentions of the constitutional framers and the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment ensures citizenship for those born or naturalized in the U.S.
The press release stated, “The framers could never have imagined such an absurd system that would allow 15 million illegal immigrants to have representation in the Congress and Electoral College.”
Hanaway’s lawsuit demands that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri declare that including illegal immigrants and temporary visa holders in the 2020 Census and the basis for seat allocation in 2021 violates the Fourteenth Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, which regulates how federal agencies enact and publish regulations.
Additionally, the Attorney General’s office is asking the court to declare that including these groups in the 2030 Census and seat allocation in 2031 violates federal law.
The press release concluded, “Without corrective measures, Missouri and the American people will continue to be deprived of fair representation in the House of Representatives, the Electoral College, and federal funding allocation.”
Both the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce have not immediately responded to requests for comments.