I hope they increase the illegal immigrant raids during the 2010 Census. New York and the Mexico border states are being overrepresented in Congress because illegal immigrants are counted in the population during congressional apportionment. Why should Texas and California get extra votes in Congress and the Electoral College due to high numbers of illegal residents who can't even participate in the election. It would be nice if this bill would pass but I highly doubt it will ever get out of committee.
While your point is legitimate when it comes to congressional apportionment, itīs not really valid when it comes to the Electoral College. CA for example is currently not overrepresented in the EC, but underrepresented in favor of small states like ND, SD and WY. If the EC was apportioned according to its population share in the US, California should have 65 Electoral Votes according to Census 2000, not the 55 it currently has. OH should have 22 instead of the 20 it has right now. CA had 3 times OH's population in 2000, so it should have 3 times OH's 20 EVs, instead of the 55. So you as an OHan should not complain about CA being overrepresented in the EC, if you have actually 5 more EV than CA.
And btw how should they increase the illegal immigrant raids during Census 2010 ? As the article says no census worker asks if those questioned are legally in the US. They just ask if they are citizenzs. Do you expect census workers to inform the raid-agencies whenever they encounter a suspicious non-citizen ? That would not only violate the privacy during the census count but would also lead to a modern witch hunt.
Actually my point is quite valid when it comes to the Electoral College since the number of EVs a state receives is directly related to the number of congressional seats that state holds. Therefore, states with high numbers of illegal immigrants are receiving more electoral votes than they deserve. The EC system was purposely designed to favor states with smaller populations which is why the number of EVs a state receives isn't directly proportional to its share of the overall US population.
And btw, I never actually said it was the responsibility of the Census Bureau to report illegal immigrants. You misinterpreted my meaning when I said "I hope they increase the illegal immigrant raids in 2010." When I say "they" I of course mean the immigration agents of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement branch of the Department of Homeland Security. Because if they increase their raids there will not only be less illegal immigrants, there will also be less illegal immigrants willing to cooperate with Census officials and thus less will be counted. The hopeful outcome being that illegal immigrants will have a negligible affect on apportionment of congressional seats and electoral votes.
