Trump’s note will benefit Republican Party by largely eliminating non-white migrants (File)
Washington:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a memorandum that would prevent migrants who are illegally in the United States from being counted when congressional constituencies are redrawn in the next round of redistribution.
US census experts and lawyers say the action is legally dubious. In theory, this would benefit Trump’s Republican Party by illegally wiping out the largely non-white migrant population in the United States, creating more Caucasian constituencies.
“Inclusion of these illegal aliens in the state’s population for distribution purposes could result in the allocation of two or three more seats in Congress than would otherwise be allocated,” the memo reads.
Supporters of citizen-only constituencies argue that every vote should have equal weight. If one constituency has significantly fewer eligible voters than another, they say, each vote has more influence on election results.
But this decision raises major legal questions and will likely lead to litigation.
The US Constitution explicitly says that the allocation in Congress should be based on the “total number of people” in each state. Several federal laws have reinforced this reading.
“All of this makes Trump’s position scandalous,” said Joshua Geltzer, a constitutional law expert and professor at Georgetown Law, adding that the ruling will almost certainly lead to litigation.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
