Washington: Five Indian-American lawmakers joined more than 150 House Democrats in demanding that the Trump administration withdraw a proposed census rule that would exclude some non-citizens from the population used to allocate congressional seats.
Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Suhas Subramanyam and Shri Thanedar signed the public comment letter, according to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
The effort was led by Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the chairs of the Asian Pacific American, Hispanic, Black and Equality caucuses.
“We will fight this rule in Congress and the courts,” Garcia said.
The lawmakers argued that the proposal would violate the 14th Amendment’s requirement that representation reflect the number of people in each state. They said restrictions on demographic questions would weaken enforcement of voting rights and other civil rights protections.
Grace Meng, who chairs the Asian Pacific American caucus, said the changes could cost minority communities representation and resources and weaken data needed to identify disparities.
Under the bureau’s proposal, lawful permanent residents, commonly known as green-card holders, would remain included in the apportionment population. Undocumented immigrants and non-citizens with legal status less permanent than a green card, including temporary visa holders, would be excluded.
The proposed rule would also bar questions about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation on census questionnaires used to enumerate the population. That restriction would not apply to the American Community Survey or other surveys that do not enumerate the population.
The bureau argues that lasting residence and allegiance to the United States should determine who is counted for apportionment.
The agency is considering administrative records to establish individuals’ legal status and is seeking comments on whether to add a legal-status question to the census form.
Separately, Republican Representative Mary Miller of Illinois announced a letter Friday supporting the proposal and urging the administration to go further by excluding all non-citizens, including green-card holders, from congressional apportionment.
Miller’s group also sought restrictions on demographic questions in the American Community Survey, extending beyond the bureau’s proposal. She argued that congressional representation should be determined by American citizens.
The National Conference of State Legislatures, in comments published Friday, sought a further 60 days for public responses and consultation with states over the changes.
The organisation said census data were essential for drawing electoral boundaries and that American Community Survey estimates and administrative records could not adequately replace detailed census counts for that purpose. It warned that changing the information collected without consulting states could complicate compliance with their redistricting laws.
It said the survey generally provides data for larger geographical areas than individual census blocks, potentially forcing states to develop costly methods to allocate the information to the smaller units used to build electoral maps.
The Census Bureau published the proposal on September 10. An October 5 notice extended the public comment deadline from October 13 to November 2.
The United States conducts a census every 10 years. Its population figures are used to divide the House of Representatives’ 435 seats among the 50 states.
(IANS)
