Anti-Deportation Network Mobilizes Against Census Rule Excluding Illegal Aliens

The same left-wing activist groups that oppose President Donald Trump’s enforcement of immigration law also appear to be mobilizing against the Census Bureau’s proposed rule to exclude illegal aliens from the 2030 census for purposes of determining seats in the House of Representatives and votes in the Electoral College.

Critics see this mobilization as evidence of maneuvering for political advantage.

“The Left opposes deportations and supports counting illegal aliens for congressional apportionment for the same reason—to maintain their own political power,” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told the Daily Signal in a statement Thursday.

The Census Bureau argues that apportionment should be based on a person’s “usual residence,” as the census traditionally includes members of the military stationed overseas and excludes tourists.

Under the proposed rule, the Census Bureau would exclude illegal aliens and other non-permanent residents from the apportionment count.

Adriel I. Cepeda Drieux, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, told NPR her group is considering litigation, saying the rule would “fly against centuries of constitutional tradition in the United States.”

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The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights asked the Census Bureau to extend the comment period.

Earlier Efforts on the Census

The Leadership Conference sent a letter in November asking members of Congress to exclude from a funding bill a provision that would “exclude undocumented immigrants from the congressional apportionment base.”

In January, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway sued the Commerce Department, arguing that counting illegal aliens and temporary visa holders in the 2030 census would violate her state’s rights. The ACLU represented four organizations in seeking to intervene to oppose Hanaway’s claims: OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, Make the Road New York, the New York Immigrant Coalition, and FIEL Houston.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sought to intervene in the case as well.

Hanaway moved to dismiss the lawsuit following the Census Bureau rule.

“We find the federal government’s proposal to exclude illegal immigrants from the population count used for congressional apportionment to be a major step in addressing the concerns Attorney General Hanaway raised in her lawsuit,” a spokesperson told the Daily Signal.

“The opposition from left-wing organizations whose existence depends on the presence of illegal immigrants is not surprising in the slightest,” the spokesperson added. “Citizens of our country, unlike illegal immigrants or temporary travelers, have the right to fair funding, fair representation, and a fair path to the White House.”

Opposition to Immigration Enforcement

Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said many of the groups mobilizing against the proposal are the same organizations that routinely oppose administrative efforts to tighten immigration or voting rules.

“The groups that oppose it generally are the groups that oppose any effort to administratively tighten up on things… whether it’s voting or how to count people in the census,” he told the Daily Signal.

In December 2020, ACLU immigration counsel Madhuri Grewal wrote, “It is time to put an end to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention machine.” He urged Biden to terminate detention contracts, reduce ICE detention funding, and release tens of thousands from custody.

Make the Road New York describes the Trump administration’s policies as “an all-out war on immigrant communities.” The New York Immigration Coalition calls for ending “state support for detention, deportation, and mass incarceration.”

In March, Leadership Conference President and CEO Maya Wiley wrote, “ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] do not need—and do not deserve—another dime.”

The Daily Signal reached out to the ACLU, Make the Road New York, New York Immigration Coalition, MALDEF, the Leadership Conference, the National Council of Nonprofits, the Census Bureau, and the Commerce Department, but did not receive responses by publication time.

Why It Matters

A Center for Immigration Studies analysis found that the inclusion of all immigrants, legal and illegal, in the 2020 census shifted 17 seats in the House of Representatives.

Camarota told the Daily Signal that “the impact of illegals was 2 seats in 2020 and we estimate 4 in 2024 due to growth under Biden, 5 if you count their U.S.-born children.”

He said critics of the Census Bureau proposal are defending “this idea of taking political power away from American citizens who live in high-citizenship areas and states and give it to American citizens who live in low-citizenship areas and states.”

Ries, the Heritage Foundation scholar, said it boils down to partisan advantage.

“The Left keeps illegal aliens in their jurisdiction and sues to have them counted in the Census to keep or grow their number of congressional seats,” she told the Daily Signal.

“Only the U.S. citizen headcount should be used for congressional apportionment because only U.S. citizens can vote for members of Congress,” she insisted.