Congress has failed to act to restore the citizenship question to the 2020 census. The Supreme Court did not necessarily disagree with the White House lawsuit to restore the question but required more justification.
Alternatively, President Trump has instructed his administration to determine the enumeration of citizens. But why is citizenship an issue?
The decennial U.S. census was inaugurated in 1790 as mandated by Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution as a way to count the population in order to apportion representation in the House of Representatives and direct taxes among the states.
In Federalist 54 James Madison said the apportionment of representatives was to be based on a census of persons or free citizens, while the apportionment of direct taxes was to be based on estimated wealth or property.
Census questionnaires were not provided until 1830, however naturalization status was in every census questionnaire between 1890 and 2010 except for 1960. The 2010 questionnaire included the American Community Survey issued by the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce.
The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the basis of representation shall be based on the number of citizens counted. There is no ambiguity in this language, and it remains the constitutional standard of all executive action or legislation.
President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order--deemed unconstitutional but currently in force pending final litigation--does not change the citizenship status of children of illegal aliens.
Any enumeration of non-citizen aliens cannot be used to apportion the House of Representatives or Electors for President and Vice President except to reduce the total count of inhabitants. In light of the volume of illegal aliens being released into the population at the southern border, the absence of a citizenship question in the census will cause an inaccurate count and apportionment of the House of Representatives.
Those opposed to the citizenship question argue that it will cause an undercount of some persons out of fear of deportation. Local governments stand to lose taxpayer money distributed to communities on the basis of the census count.
One political party has determined that preventing the Census Bureau from collecting accurate data is necessary for their success and is using every effort to prevent an accurate count of citizens.
Analysis of the impact of adjusting congressional apportionment for an estimated 14 million illegally residing aliens indicates that California, New York, and Illinois would lose as many as seven seats, while Texas and Florida would add seats.
There are three categories of inhabitants: United States citizens, legally residing aliens, and illegally residing aliens. Period. Legally residing aliens have a current visa or are in the naturalization process.
Having illegally entered the United States an illegally residing alien is subject to immediate deportation. Going back to the Fourteenth Amendment, (which was enacted to give citizenship to former slaves born within the boundaries of the United States), the child of an illegally residing alien born within the boundaries of the United States remains under the jurisdiction of the parent’s legal citizenship.
The most expedient way to address the influx of illegal aliens is by enforcing current immigration law and providing the resources to the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Congress has a constitutional duty to pass appropriation bills to operate the government, but the career politicians prefer to use the issue to divide the country. While one party politicizes immigration enforcement and the census, neither party seems willing to tackle the $22 trillion debt. One politician recently stated that no one has ever been voted out of office for spending money.
Government dysfunction goes beyond Congress. The bureaucratic state and the courts have given the federal government power originally reserved by the states. Continued federal overreach threatens to unravel the fabric of our republic.
The federal government is broken and no election will fix it. A recent poll indicates that less than a third of Americans are proud of our political system. How much longer can we allow this to go on?
Article V of the Constitution provides a process for the states to have a convention for proposing amendments. When the legislatures of 34 states have passed the Convention of States resolution, the states will hold a convention and amendments will be proposed.
A handful of amendments can change the status quo and return accountability. The Convention of States Project proposes a convention limited to addressing three subjects regarding the federal government that Congress will never address: term limits for officials and members of Congress, fiscal restraints, and limits on the scope and jurisdiction. Any amendment proposed by the convention must still be ratified by 38 states.
Citizens need to stand up and take action by signing the petition below and asking your state legislators to support and pass the Convention of States resolution.
The voices of single citizens are easily and routinely dismissed, but the action of 34 state legislatures signals to Washington that the status quo is no longer acceptable. So far 15 states have passed the Convention of States resolution.
It is time for Kansas to stand up and join the passed states.
