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States Sue Trump Administration Over Counting of Undocumented Immigrants for Congressional Districting

By immigrationprof

 

 

 

Last Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a large coalition of states, cities, and counties in filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump for attempting to, once again, illegally leave millions out of the apportionment base that establishes the number of members in the House of Representatives that each state receives. The lawsuit seeks to stop the Trump administration ensure that the administration counts the “whole number of persons” residing in the country for apportionment, as the U.S. Constitution unambiguously requires.

In the lawsuit — filed against President Trump, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Census Bureau, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Census Director Steven Dillingham, and joined by 21 attorneys general, nine cities, four counties, and one combined city and county — Attorney General James and the coalition argue that apportionment based on a population count that unlawfully excludes undocumented immigrants will:

  • Lead to the loss of congressional seats and presidential electors in the Electoral College,
  • Skew the division of electoral districts within jurisdictions by impairing state and local redistricting efforts that rely on the census count,
  • Reduce federal funds to state and local jurisdictions by deterring immigrants from responding to the decennial census that is currently underway, and
  • Degrade the quality of census data that states and local jurisdictions rely on to perform critical governmental functions.

Joining Attorney General James in filing today’s lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia. The attorneys general are joined by the cities of Central Falls, RI; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Pittsburgh, PA; Providence, RI; Seattle, WA; and the city and county of San Francisco. Additionally, Cameron, El Paso, and Hidalgo Counties in Texas and Monterey County in California joined the lawsuit.

The ACLU and other organizations filed suit challenging the Trump administration’s Census actions.  Both that suit and the states’ were filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York.  

Legal experts (and here) have questioned the constitutionality of Trump’s actions.

KJ

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