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The memorandum marks the Trump administration’s newest work to adjust the way US populations are counted and advance the President’s immigration agenda. And like preceding attempts, the challenge will close up in court.
“I have accordingly established that respect for the legislation and defense of the integrity of the democratic course of action warrant the exclusion of unlawful aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent possible and to the most extent of the President’s discretion under the regulation,” the order states.
The American Civil Liberties Union options to challenge the memo, Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Task, said in a statement.
“(Trump’s) most current attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities will be discovered unconstitutional. We are going to see him in court docket, and win, all over again,” Ho explained.
Trump has very long sought to use the US census as a way to progress his immigration priorities but the Supreme Court docket rejected an endeavor to request respondents if they are US citizens in 2019. The administration, nonetheless, is authorized to gather information on citizenship standing by other implies.
The courts will probably have the remaining say. The Structure claims congressional illustration is apportioned based mostly on “the total Amount of no cost People,” not only these who are American citizens.
“The authorized issue is that the 14th Amendment says that representatives shall be apportioned amid the numerous states in accordance to their respective quantities, counting the entire number of persons,” mentioned Joshua Geltzer of the Georgetown University Legislation Heart.
“That means Property seats are divvied up primarily based on anyone present in the 50 states, not just dependent on those lawfully existing,” he claimed.
In addition, Geltzer said, the census would not at the moment check with regardless of whether an individual immigrated illegally to the United States. “Presumably the Trump administration will have to depend on a hodgepodge of other information to guess the population they intend to use for apportionment.”
Michael Li, who serves as senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Plan, questioned how the federal government would make the determination on irrespective of whether another person is unlawful.
“The Structure demands counting every person — small children, immigrants, everyone — it would not have exclusions primarily based on lawful status,” Li reported.
This story has been up-to-date with further developments Tuesday.
CNN’s Catherine Shoichet and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
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