The question is crucial for determining the distribution of congressional seats, government aid, and the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The citizenship data from the new survey results can have wide-ranging impacts on future elections.
The citizenship question was asked on the census from 1790 to 1950. In December last year, the Department of Justice asked Ross to reinstate it.
“It allows a sovereign nation to know how many citizens it has,” Kobach added. “That’s the craziest part of our census since 1950. Now we will have an actual count of citizens. That’s one of the most basic things a sovereign nation should be able to do, along with enforcing its borders.”
Proponents of open borders and liberal politicians opposed the addition of the question, arguing that it would reduce response rates and lead to inaccurate data. But the Census Bureau already asks immigration questions on several of its largest population surveys, which are used to estimate unemployment, poverty rates, wages, and health insurance coverage.
Kobach urged Ross to add the question back to the survey in the months leading up to the decision, arguing that the votes of legal citizens are diluted by temporary visitors and illegal aliens.
“Right now, congressional districts are drawn up simply based on the number of warm bodies in each district. Not only are legal aliens counted, but illegal aliens are counted, too,” Kobach wrote.
“Think of it this way,” he wrote. “There are about 710,000 people in each congressional district. But if half of the district is made up of illegal aliens, then there are only 355,000 citizens in the district. The value of each citizen’s vote in such a district is twice as high.”
