Mark Kirkorian, who has studied U.S. immigration for three decades at the Center for Immigration Studies, tells AFN he is not convinced Democrats see illegals as potential voters. They view them more as helpless victims who should be welcomed, he says, but that ideology has affected the U.S. census and thus affected the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, there are approximately 17 million illegals living in the U.S. That accounts for about 22 seats in the House.
“Every census,” Krikorian says of that figure, “this results in a few states getting an extra seat or two in the House of Representatives and a few states losing a seat or two.”
Citing the 2020 census, Krikorian says the states that benefitted most from illegals being counted are California, New York, and Texas. California leads the country with a population of 38.8 million, which is 8 million more than second-place Texas, but California is also famous for having the most illegal aliens of any state, approximately 1.9 million.
Thanks to California's politics, taxes and crime, a steady exodus of fed-up residents actually cost the state two congressional seats after the 2020 census. It can be argued California's number of illegals helped it keep from losing even more.
Meanwhile, after the 2020 census, the states of Ohio, Alabama, and Minnesota lost a seat in Congress when the apportionment shifted to reflect the population.
Among his immigration-related accomplishments, President Trump signed an order to exclude illegal aliens from the census, which resulted in pearl-clutching news stories and an ACLU lawsuit to stop cruelty toward “undocumented communities.”
President Biden signed an executive order reversing Trump when he took office.
Last fall, a study by Krikorian’s colleagues at CIS estimated the number of U.S. immigrants – legal and illegal – at 49.5 million. That is approximately 15% of the U.S. population and the largest in U.S. history, the story said.
