Texas Tea Party Sues Over Census Districts (counting illegal immigrants)

[pampango]

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/07/134342249/Texas-Tea-Party-Sues-Over-Census-Districts

In Texas, Tea Party activists are suing to change the way census figures are used to draw congressional districts. They say by including illegal immigrants in the count, the government is diluting the political power of citizens who live in districts without large illegal immigrant populations.

Three Tea Party activists have filed a lawsuit in federal court. It challenges the way census data is used to redraw congressional districts. After the latest census, Texas looks to pickup a number of congressional seats, especially around the state's southern border and near San Antonio.

But the plaintiffs in this suit want to make sure the numbers justifying those new seats do not include illegal immigrants. To do so, they argue, would discriminate against voters who live in districts with fewer illegal immigrants.

Since the founding of the country, the taking of the census has always been considered a signature job of the federal government. And since the founding, the mandate has been that every man, woman and child gets counted. Slaves were considered three-fifths of one person. Nevertheless, they too were included in the enumeration.

But a recently filed federal lawsuit in Texas wants to change this. It asserts, quote, "The inclusion of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Census might have the purpose and effect of strengthening the Hispanic vote. If so, this practice could violate the United States Constitution, the Voting Rights Act and the Texas Constitution."

Mr. WILLIAM GHEEN (President, Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee): We feel that illegal immigrants being counted for congressional apportionment is theft of political influence and power from innocent American citizens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NumbersUSA#cite_note-7

NumbersUSA is an immigration reduction organization whose intent is to reduce the United States' annual immigration to pre-1965 levels, without country of origin quotas as established in the Immigration Act of 1924.

In February of 2009, NumbersUSA was called a nativist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center's report "The Nativist Lobby". http://www.splcenter.org/intel/nativist_lobby.jsp

ALIPAC is the political action committee of NumbersUSA.

[Ohio Joe]

1. teabaggers were pretty much the only problem people I had doing the census

Yeah, there were one or two that just really did not want to take the time but we wore them down :D

The teabaggers though were the ones that got angry and violent. I doubt they will have any luck getting the way the census is done changed and even find it funny that they do not realize what would happen if they did get it changed. If undocumented workers and their families were not counted they would have less federal dollars for roads, schools, etc and also less representatives in the house and in the electoral college.

Stupid teabaggers.

[eilen]

4. What idiots. nt

[Bluzmann57]

2. Most people want recounts to INCREASE not decrease

Here in thre city I live in, we just missed the 100,000 population mark and the mayor wants a recount so that we can have the "magic" number and get some federal funding. So you have to think that the teabaggers aren't too bright since they want to reduce population in their districts.

[rasputin1952]

3. One of the most difficult ethnic groups to count was on the West Coast...

during the late 1800's right into the mid-twentieth Century, was Chinese immigrants, both legal and illegal. Giving the Census Bureau credit, they counted most of them during those years; one of the reasons being that there is strict limitation as to how the information becomes public, so the numbers were there, but not any personal or identifying information was published.

For these people, who claim to follow the Constitution the mandate is presented in Article I, Section 2, in the third paragraph. Since the first Census was taken virtually everyone has been counted, with the exception of Native Americans, (they are counted now), and slaves, (which were counted as 3/5 of a person) until 1866, at which point there were no "legal" slaves in the country.

I find it interesting that very few Texans squealed when DeLay changed the lines in the middle of a Census period.

[mrcheerful]

5. Come on DU ers, think about it, if you count illegals in the country that means

the gooberment knows how many nanny's, maids, house keepers, pool boys and lawn care workers tea baggers have in their homes and it makes them look bad. Why look at that poor woman who ran in Cali when it was found out that her house keeper of 15 years was, gasp gasp, an illegal and how the good woman R tried to cover it up, my god that poor rich lady came off as a big hypocrite because she wanted to make laws against people she hired, illegals.