What's Happening at the Center
In a recent column, Dr. Steven Camarota discusses the administration's decision to exclude illegal immigrants from the census count used for apportioning political representation. Dr. Camarota finds that illegal immigrants and their children will redistribute a total of five seats in the House of Representatives, and consequently five votes in the Electoral College. A state like Alabama, which currently has seven seats, will lose one-seventh of its current representation even though its population grew by well over 100,000 people since 2010. Put simply, Alabama will lose representation in the House because other states have attracted more illegal aliens. If we allow large-scale legal immigration, and tolerate illegal immigration, it is unavoidable that Americans who live in areas composed largely of citizens lose political representation, while areas with large numbers of noncitizens gain political power.
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