Western NC congressman's bill: add census citizenship question for US House seats

Western North Carolina's Republican congressman has introduced a bill that would revisit a controversial citizenship question on the U.S. Census that he says would keep non-citizens from unfairly helping determine the number of members of Congress each state gets.

"No Representation Without Legal Immigration Act is a commonsense solution to restore and strengthen our democracy by making sure that only American citizens ― not immigrants who are ineligible to vote ― determine the number of congressional seats each state has," 11th District Rep. Chuck Edwards said in a Nov. 30 release from his office.

Democratic critics say such efforts are attempts to force a census undercount and would have little effect on Edwards' district or state in terms of representation.

If passed, the act would take effect after the 2030 decennial census and would forbid the U.S. Census Bureau from counting non-citizens toward population totals that determine the number of representatives each state is given in the House.

It would also nullify Democratic President Joe Biden's 2021 executive order "Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant to the Decennial Census,” which said undocumented immigrants and non-permanent residents should be counted for the purpose of determining congressional seats.

Edwards said it was important for the sake of good policies to accurately reflect "the number of persons actually eligible to vote in each state.”

There was little daylight on the issue between Edwards and his primary opponent, Clay County mortgage broker Christian Reagan, who is from Texas and said he has "seen the illegal immigration problem all my life."

"I think it is valuable the census is done correctly," Reagan said.

In an unusual take for a Republican, Reagan added it was also important so states could know the number of non-citizen immigrants in their borders so they could better determine what government programs they wanted to serve them.

A 2020 Pew Research study found that according to the 2020 Census data, Texas, Florida and California would each lose one congressional seat, and Alabama, Minnesota and Ohio would each gain one congressional seat if undocumented immigrants were not included in the count.

Democratic candidate for the 11th District Caleb Rudow noted that North Carolina, with 14 House seats, would not be affected. Rudow, currently a North Carolina House representative for north and northwestern Asheville and Buncombe County, said Edwards should focus on issues with more direct effect on constituents.

"This might score some cheap political points nationally, but it doesn’t help working families in WNC who are struggling to keep up with inflation. It seems like it hasn’t taken Edwards much time living in D.C. to forget where he’s supposed to be representing," he said.

A census citizenship question is endorsed by the conservative Heritage Action policy advocacy group and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, commonly labeled an anti-immigration group.

The two organizations pushed a failed attempt during the presidency of Republican Donald Trump to add a citizenship question.

Opponents say the Trump administration wanted to add the question to get neighborhood level data about groups who tend to vote Democratic. That could be used to draw congressional districts favorable to Republicans, they said.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a vocal census advocate, said the move was intended to discourage households with Latino or Asian American residents from getting counted in official population totals, even those who were citizens.

"This is a clear partisan effort to force an undercount of communities of color. It's unlawful and unconstitutional," Schatz said in a statement reported by National Public Radio.

More: Western North Carolina Rep. Edwards tapped for powerful House Appropriations Committee

Ex-NC House member, a Democrat, runs again for new Asheville, Woodfin, Biltmore district

Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Western NC congressman's bill: citizenship question for House seats