President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a memorandum declaring undocumented immigrants are not to be counted when the number of U.S. Representatives for each state is allotted. That process, called “apportionment,” occurs every ten years after the official national census is conducted.
The U.S. Constitution mandates the census, which is being conducted this year, count “the whole number of persons in each state.” It makes no distinction as to their citizenship status.
What Trump is doing is claiming he has the authority to bypass the Constitution and declare undocumented immigrants are not “persons,” and therefore, literally, do not count. Continue reading.