Q&A of the day – Where the wall and Census meet
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
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Feel free to shoot away with your questions and I’ll do my best to keep up. Today’s question comes from Matthew. He sent me this meme with his thoughts.
Bottom Line: Some might take exception to the notion that the upcoming 2020 Census is the motivation for the Democrats opposing the wall. I believe they’d be willing to oppose it simply because President Trump is for it, that’s what they promised with the “resistance” at the onset of his Presidency. That being said the four points cited are absolutely true.
Early last year the Justice Department decided to bring back the citizenship question for the Census for the first time since 1950. You’ll probably remember the big push back by Democrats for having the question included. Their argument was that it would discourage minorities from participating in the Census causing states like Florida to be under-represented.
Those on the left opposing the citizenship question carefully danced around the idea that the minorities they were concerned about not reporting to the Census Bureau were illegal immigrants. Last fall I brought you the staggering figures about the real cost of illegal immigration in a story depicting how the wall would save us money. One of the figures I cited came according to the Center for Immigration Studies. 63% of non-citizen households are illegally on at least one form of government assistance.
With 63% of non-citizens already illegally on government assistance, it’s super easy to have them all counted for Census purposes to impact the Electoral College vote, congressional districts and the allocation of federal resources. These are the people the left are concerned won’t participate in the Census due to the citizenship question.
The Constitution left open this loophole or possibility based on the way you view it because the Census language said all “persons”, not citizens should be counted. Back to the premise of your four points. Yes, if there are open borders and illegals stack the population in states like California, they can “legally” be counted in the Census and in essence rewarding illegal immigration. It is yet another reason why it’s critical we have proper border security. States like California are literally stealing from states like Florida, politically and financially.
Photo by: David McNew/Getty Images