GOP Lawmakers Flirt With Drastic Change To How U.S. House Map Is Drawn

[DonViejo]

By Tierney Sneed | June 8, 2018 1:01 pm

Multiple witnesses appeared in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Friday to testify in favor or against the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census — a Trump administration move that is roiling the civil rights community and prompting numerous lawsuits.

But the Republican lawmakers who showed up to participate in the hearing seemed most interested in speaking to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who is bringing a lawsuit seeking to alter how the U.S. congressional map is drawn to diminish the political power of immigrant-friendly states.

His lawsuit is parallel to the push for a census citizenship question, but if successful, could have just as drastic of an effect, if not more. Whereas the Trump administration has claimed it needs census citizenship data for Voting Rights Act enforcement (a claim viewed skeptically by voting rights activists), the Alabama lawsuit explicitly seeks to exclude undocumented immigrants from how U.S. congressional seats are apportioned.

To do so, it would require the Census Bureau adding another question seeking to know immigrants’ legal status, beyond the citizenship question, which civil right rights groups fear will chill immigrant participation on the survey.

“Not only would we want to know your citizenship, but also whether or not, if you’re here illegally, have you overstayed your welcome, in essence the status you were granted? Or if you’ve ever been granted [legal status] in the first place,” Marshall said Friday. “And by having that information, it would allow us to do an appropriate apportionment of those congressional representatives and the Electoral College.”

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/republicans-congressional-apportionment-census-hearing

[Fred Sanders]

1. So, for election purposes the fascists want to count illegal immigrants, who will gladly so

in writing, but for other purposes they are all demons to be deported on site?

Republican logic....it is always about hate and fear....happeneded before in the '30's....how could Nazi Germany come to be?? Now we all know.

[hedda_foil]

2. Read it again.

[Fred Sanders]

3. Thanks, got it. Want to EXCLUDE them from the count, to diminish population count, so as to

apportion fewer seats.

[hedda_foil]

4. Yup. You've got it Fred. And of course that means the big states get fewer representatives.

The whole idea is blatantly unconstitutional.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Perhaps we should compromise...

Let's count them at say...35ths like the original Constitution did to slaves who couldn't vote. That boosted southern states' powers for about 80 years or so.