Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has filed a lawsuit demanding that the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce exclude undocumented immigrants from the results of the 2020 census.
According to St. Louis Public Radio, the lawsuit was announced by Hanaway’s office on Friday. In a press release, the attorney general said that he wants the 2020 census to exclude all persons who either lacked legal status or were in the United States on temporary, non-immigrant visas. He has also asked that the same rules be applied to the upcoming 2030 census.
“United States citizens and lawful permanent residents have a right to representation, unlike illegal aliens and temporary visa holders,” Hanaway said in a statement. “In America, the People, the members of the social compact, are the only legitimate source of the government’s power. We are taking a stand against those who are cheating our system.”
The lawsuit argues that Missouri would gain another congressional seat, and potentially another vote in the Electoral College, if undocumented immigrants weren’t counted in the Census.
Furthermore, Hanaway suggested that Missouri could receive an even larger allocation of federal funds if such money weren’t diverted to states with larger immigrant populations.
“Attorney General Hanaway will not allow open-border states like California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland to steal an estimated 11 congressional seats, 11 electoral votes, and billions of dollars in funding,” Hanaway said.
Separately, Missouri Solicitor General Louis Capozzi said that legal precedent backs the state’s claims, citing a 1992 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning how, if at all, the Census should count Americans living overseas.
“Our position is that illegal aliens and temporary foreign visitors are not and cannot be deemed domiciled in the United States,” Capozzi said. “Citizens and lawful permanent residents are domiciled, and they can be counted.”
Hanaway’s office attributed the current policy on undocumented immigrants to decisions made by past presidential administrations.
“Prior to the 1980 Census, the Carter Administration unilaterally decided that all illegal aliens and temporary visa holders should be counted in the decennial Census and included in the apportionment of congressional representation,” Hanaway’s office said. “The framers of the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment would have been shocked by this policy. They could never have imagined an absurd system where 15 million illegal alien trespassers would receive representation in Congress and the Electoral College.”
The lawsuit claims that the current Census policy must be changed because it “steals federal representation from Missourians, and transfers it to States who artificially inflate their population by harboring [undocumented immigrants].”
Sources
Missouri AG files lawsuit to block Census from counting undocumented immigrants
Missouri Attorney General sues to redo 2020 census to exclude immigrants without legal status
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