Kansas joins effort to stop counting noncitizens in census, but communities fear damage
thebeaconnews.org
Census results are used to allocate federal and state resources. Smaller populations mean less money for municipalities and states.
Takeaways
  1. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach joined a lawsuit because Kansas is likely to lose congressional representation to states with larger noncitizen populations.
  2. Advocates say the census count needs to be as accurate as possible. Not counting noncitizens would be a mistake, they warn.
  3. Ohio, West Virginia and Louisiana have also joined the lawsuit.
  • hypna@lemmy.world
    33·
    2 days ago

    Then they have a higher hurdle to clear. All I’m saying is it seems reasonable to give a state representation based on the number of citizens.

    I got curious about the size of the issue. The numbers I found for Texas was an estimated 1.6 million illegal immigrants out of a total population of 30.5 million, or roughly 5%. There are 38 reps from Texas, so they’d lose one or two.

    • Cort@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 days ago

      And I’m saying it’s NOT reasonable to only count citizens.

      Since you’re curious, in 2022 Texas had 3 million non citizen legal permanent residents (green card holders) that’s about twice as many as the number of people immigrating illegally.

      All the green card holders came here legally and followed all the rules, but you’re wanting to force them to have taxation without representation? That’s fucking absurd and un-american.

      • hypna@lemmy.world
        13·
        2 days ago

        Neither illegal immigrants, nor non-citizen residents get to vote. In what sense are they represented in either case?

        • Cort@lemmy.world
          6·
          2 days ago

          Neither do children, and yet they’re still taxed. And non citizens do get to vote in some elections.

          To actually answer your question tho, they vote with their feet. If the representative in their area isn’t doing what they want, they can move which reduces the population count for apportionment. Your proposal removes that little bit of leverage legal immigrants have to affect change.