The House of Representatives recently passed a bill called the Equal Representation Act, which aims to add a citizenship question to the next U.S. census. The bill, led by Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., also seeks to exclude non-citizens from the population count used to determine how many lawmakers each state gets in the House of Representatives and the number of electors for each state. The legislation passed along party lines, with 206 Republicans in favor and 202 Democrats against, with zero Democrats voting in favor. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., criticized House Democrats for allowing their open-borders agenda to interfere with common sense, stating that illegal immigrants should not be represented in the U.S. Congress.
During debates on the bill, Rep. Chuck Edwards argued that illegal aliens had recently been included in the population count for apportionment purposes, resulting in American citizens in some states losing representation in Congress to illegal aliens in other states. Although the bill faced opposition from Democrats and some Republicans, the majority of House Republicans supported it, citing record levels of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. under President Biden’s administration. Former President Trump had previously attempted to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but the Supreme Court blocked the effort. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has just a one-seat majority in the House, had to manage dissent within the Republican party to secure passage of the bill.
During the debate on the bill, Rep. Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, expressed concerns that adding a citizenship question to the census would deprive millions of immigrants of their right to representation, affecting the accuracy of the count and participation in the census. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., a supporter of the bill, argued that while the legislation would continue to count every person in the U.S., it would simply add a question about citizenship status. Another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., accused Democrats of opposing the bill because it would impact their power in Congress, suggesting that including illegal aliens in the census could skew representation in their favor.
Supporters of the bill, such as Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., highlighted the potential impact of non-citizens having a say in American elections, emphasizing the need to address the issue of illegal persons living in the country. Some Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., spoke out against the bill, advocating for lawful immigration while expressing concerns about disenfranchising millions of people who are lawfully in the U.S. Raskin emphasized the potential impact on permanent residents who might be excluded from the reapportionment process if the legislation were to pass. Despite the opposition from Democrats, the bill aimed at adding a citizenship question to the U.S. census was ultimately passed by the House of Representatives with support from the Republican majority.
