Democrats Vote Unanimously to Include Illegal Immigrants in Census

A group of immigrants who crossed the river illegally are processed by Border Patrol near the highway outside Eagle Pass, Texas, on Feb. 4, 2024. SERGIO FLORES / AFP

Senate Democrats have unanimously defeated Sen. Bill Hagerty’s (R-Tenn.) proposal to bar illegal immigrants from being counted in the national census, warning that their numbers go toward informing the apportioning of House seats and the Electoral College.

Soon after President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he signed an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to determine the population of each state in the United States without regard to whether residents have lawful immigration status.

The amendment, which would be added to the Equal Representation Act that Sen. Hagerty proposed last month, would require the Census Bureau to include a citizenship question in any future census. Anyone who isn’t a U.S. citizen, including people with temporary visas and green cards, would then be excluded from the ballot for congressional district and Electoral College apportionments. Census data is collected every 10 years.

The proposal was attached to the $460 billion government spending package that was passed on Saturday.

The measure was shot down 45-51 after failing to get even a single Democratic vote. Sen. Hagerty released a statement on March 8 accusing Democrats of holding back the amendment for political reasons, while also promising to keep pressing this issue.

“Democrats’ unanimous opposition to this commonsense measure confirms that they’re using illegal aliens and sanctuary cities to increase their political power,” he said.

“With this vote, Senate Democrats chose to trample on the rights of each American’s voice. I will continue to fight and press this issue in the Senate,” Sen. Hagerty added.

Sen. Hagerty has made this accusation in the past, arguing that Democrats in sanctuary cities are allowing illegal immigrants into their regions in the hopes of gaining more votes and greater representation in the House of Representatives and Electoral College.

A sanctuary city is an area where the authorities may limit cooperation with the federal government’s efforts to enforce immigration law, deportation, or prosecution. At the moment, roughly 200 cities, counties, and states are considered sanctuary cities in the United States, with New Orleans, New York City, and Washington, D.C., among them.

Democrat Calls for More Immigrants

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and several other Republicans were also sponsors of the Equal Representation Act introduced by Sen. Hagerty last month. According to the press release from Sen. Cassidy, the legislation came in response to a video that showed a Democrat Congresswoman openly calling for more illegal immigration to her New York congressional district because she “needs more people in her district for redistricting purposes.”

According to the Republican senators, the excessive number of illegal immigrants in a state like California have helped the state take several more congressional seats and Electoral College votes than the population of citizens otherwise justifies. They accuse California and similar states of being more lenient with illegal immigrants in the hopes of increasing the power of their residents’ votes relative to those residing in states without a population boost from illegal immigration.

“This creates a perverse incentive encouraging illegal immigration and resettlement to increase political power,” the senators said.

Elon Musk, the CEO of social media platform X, also commented on the legislation’s failure to pass, repeating similar claims made by Sen. Hagerty. According to Mr. Musk, the Census Bureau currently counts all people in a district, regardless of citizenship, for purposes of voting, upsetting the balance of power.

“Since illegals are mostly in Democrat states, both the House and the Presidential vote are shifted ~5% to the left, which is enough to change the entire balance of power,” he said.

“This is a major reason why the Biden administration is ushering in record levels of illegals and doing so few deportations,” Mr Musk added.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.

Border Crisis Continues Causing Headaches for Biden Administration

The vote for an amendment to the Equal Representation Act comes as illegal immigration remains a hot button issue in the election cycle. President Biden visited the southern border last week and then called for Congress to pass a bipartisan border bill in his State of the Union address.

Record numbers of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs have been flowing into America in recent years. At the moment, it’s estimated that more than 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since President Biden took office in 2021.

Republicans have been pushing for stricter border laws for years. However, recently, congressional Republicans started calling for President Biden to close the border immediately in the wake of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Hope Riley being murdered by a man who was illegally living in the United States.

In a Feb. 24 post on social media platform X, House Speaker Mike Johnson urged President Biden to use his “existing statutory authority” and close the border now.

“The brutal murderer who took the life of Laken was one of the millions of illegal aliens that the Biden Administration simply released and unleashed upon our country,” Mr. Johnson said.

“For Laken, and the countless many others lost to this border catastrophe, House Republicans will continue to fight tooth and nail for a return to law and order,” he added.