Invasion By Design’: Democrats Reject House Bill for Census Citizenship Question

None of the Democrats in the House voted for a bill to add a citizenship question to the census questionnaire that passed through the GOP-led chamber on Wednesday.

The Equal Representation Act, which was introduced by Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), received 206 “yeas” from Republicans and 202 “nays” from Democrats. Twenty-two members, including 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats, did not vote.

The bill would require a citizenship question on the decennial census starting in 2030. It also demands the findings be reported and modify apportionment of House representatives and electoral votes to exclude noncitizens.

In a statement, Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said the House was “taking steps to proactively protect a fair electoral process” as he bemoaned how the “Biden Administration’s open border policies have created the worst border crisis in American history, impacting every American.”

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), pointed to one of the amendments to the Constitution in making a case against passing the census questionnaire legislation.

“The Fourteenth Amendment makes the census and reapportionment apply to ‘all persons.’ Constitutional originalists, textualists and followers of precedent must reject unlawful GOP attempts to confine the census and Congressional apportionment to citizens,” Raskin said in a post to X.

Another Democrat who spoke out against the bill was Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), who hails from a House district created after the 2020 census that was drawn to have a Hispanic plurality.

“Today, Republicans forced a vote on H.R. 7109, an unconstitutional bill intended to make people afraid and to discourage their participation in the Census,” she said on X. “H.R. 1709 ultimately undercounts, underrepresents, and underfunds communities like ours, #IL03. I VOTED NO.”

With no support across the aisle, the GOP bill’s prospects in the Democrat-controlled Senate may not be very good. Still, Republican lawmakers and their allies rallied behind the legislation to boost their messaging about the issue of illegal immigration ahead of the 2024 election.

Stephen Miller, who served as a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, warned on X that “House Seats and Electoral College votes WILL BE added to areas with the most illegals (including all Biden illegals) unless [the] Senate passes the bill.” He added, “Invasion by design.”

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