House Committee Aims to Stop Illegal Aliens from Slanting Congressional Apportionment
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability recently approved Congressmen Chuck Edwards’ (R-N.C.) and Warren Davidson’s (R-Ohio) H.R. 7109, the Equal Representation Act. H.R. 7109 would reinstate a citizenship question on the decennial census and only allow United States citizens to count towards determining the number of congressional seats – which also allocates Electoral College votes for presidential elections. The bill was advanced by a vote of 22-20, with every Democrat voting against it.
During the Oversight Committee’s markup, Republican members emphasized the commonsense purpose of the bill, while Democrats argued fervently that it was partisan, and moved the country backwards. Congressman Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said, “The only people who should be able to make political decisions within the framework of a representative government are the citizens of that government of that nation…that’s not xenophobic, that’s common-sense.” In contrast, Democrats on the committee repeatedly called the bill a shameful attack on illegal aliens. Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) claimed that, “You have to count everyone for representation, everyone deserves representation.” And Congressman Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) stated, “I think it’s really shameful that we have this effort…It certainly in my opinion is a direct attack especially on undocumented people in this country.”
While illegal aliens are not allowed to vote in federal elections, a population spike in some states due to illegal immigration could impact congressional district and Electoral College apportionments. According to a 2023 FAIR analysis of Census Bureau data, at least 16.8 million illegal aliens now reside in the United States. That figure represents an increase of at least 2.3 million aliens since President Biden took office in January 2021. The spike in the illegal alien population ties together with new data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) showing that the nation’s broader foreign-born population has also exploded, increasing 15.6 percent since 2010. That data reveals that the foreign-born population has now reached 13.9 percent (46.2 million) of the total U.S. population, up from 12.9 percent (40 million) in 2010.
Congressional reapportionment based on the 2020 census led to multiple congressional seats changing across the country. Sanctuary states such as New York, Illinois, and California all lost one House seat each, while Florida gained one seat and Texas two. More broadly, the average population represented by each seat in the House reached 761,169 in 2020. Since then, however, over 9 million illegal aliens have crossed our borders under the Biden Administration, along with at least 1.8 million “gotaways.” Given that the illegal alien population has risen to at least 16.8 million as of 2023, there are now enough individuals residing in the country illegally to account for roughly 22 House seats.
H.R. 7109 is a critical step to ensuring that the border crisis does not distort congressional and Electoral College reapportionment. Without the meaningful changes called for in the bill, reapportionment following the 2030 census could be seriously affected by the record number of illegal aliens released into the country under the Biden Administration, leading to even longer-term consequences. FAIR applauds the Oversight Committee for quickly moving the Equal Representation Act forward and urges the full House to do the same — Americans deserve to have their voices fully represented in our nation’s capital, not diluted by individuals who chose to enter the country illegally.