Should Noncitizens Be Represented in Congress?

The government has the right to ask the question.

 

Non-citizens have always been counted to determine the allocation of Congressional seats. It was written into the Constitution.

 

The government has the right to ask any question the bureaucrats want to ask in order to serve the needs of the people. It can ask if you are a felon. It can ask how many guns you have and what kind. Maybe they want to build a series of gun ranges where people can get proficient shooting guns so they would need to know where the gun owners are. They used to ask people if they were idiots. Most of them were so they built more schools.

 

No, the govt does not, Wyrd. The courts will let the govt know what questions it can ask.

 

They could be counted but maybe as 1/10th of a person for Congressional representation purposes. That is completely in line with the original Constitution.

 

Just going by the thread title, non citizens can’t be represented because they don’t vote.

 

The government can tell the court to go ____ itself and restrict it from hearing any laws that it passes about anything. That is constitutional.

 

Slaves didn't vote but they were counted.

 

Whats written in the Constitution is that "persons" are to be counted. If those framers had even the slightest foresight of the problems of illegal immigration they would have been more specific. But back then it simply didn't register. Correcting this problem is simple its just going to take some balls and some patriotism. There are two solidly logical ways to challenge this problem both satisfying Constitutional requirements.

1) Because the counting of "persons" directly calculates the representation of the voting process in which illegals cannot participate, the word "persons" can and should be interrupted to mean US citizens only. Such a ruling would not offend any other law nor Constitutional provision as there is no conflicting language on the matter.

2) The other way to challenge this is on grounds of unequal representation, equal representation being something the Constitution demands. Because there are so many tens of millions of illegals the counting of them and subsequent reapportionment creates a large disparity in representation that directly affects our individual rights. This is a serious violation that can and should be corrected.

Furthermore lets consider the rest of passage of the Constitution this is based on, the "three fifths of all other persons" and "Indians not taxes" part. We don't follow this language because it a) conflicts with morality and b) violates the rights of citizens. There really is no grounds on which anyone can stand to defend the counting of illegals for the purpose of representation - other than because certain people want to gain seats for districts their party carries.

 

No.

 

If he wants to be counted, let him take the citizenship test and become an American. My ex-gf is from Canada and is now a US citizen. They even took out the part about renouncing one's citizenship in the former country, so there's no reason NOT to become a citizen.

 

Personally, I think the government has the right to ask the question, but I also think it's a dumb question to ask. Who the hell is going to answer, "No, I'm not a citizen," on a government form? They're either going to lie or they're not going to submit the form. The census bureau suggests that 6.5 million people will simply not submit the form if the question is included, but if all 6.5 million of them are not citizens, we don't need their forms anyway. So go ahead and include it.

 

No the government does not have the right to even consider it without consent from the people.

I am a taxpayer. Not giving me and other taxpayers the chance to even have a say is taxation without representation.

One of the few things I expect from the government is protection from foreign invaders. So far the government is failing on that.

And no, I do not care who the invaders are. I expect the government to control the borders and up hold the law.

 

Are Americans represented in Japan's Congress? Are Japanese people represented in Swedish Congress?

What utter nonsense. A foreign national is a foreign national, and has no business anywhere near your politics.

 

He’s been counted for 60 years, and paying taxes.

 

Congress could but it won't.

 

The US has been invading other people's countries since 1776.

 

Have you seen the garbage that is in charge of Congress? The only thing they care about is getting rich.

 

Neither of the two parties care about the American citizen.

 

You’re still missing the point. Non-citizen does not equal illegal. A citizenship question on the census alone doesn’t do anything to identify illegal immigrants (even if they answer honestly) unless you jump to the false conclusion that all non-citizens are suspect, which is exactly the kind of altitude that leads some people are concerned about this move. You’re damaging your own argument by failing to acknowledge the clear distinctions between all the various different status an individual can have.

 

Couldn't this data be used to identify illegal aliens? If so, why the hell would any alien identify themselves as a non-citizen in the census?

 

The question only asks if they are a citizen or not. There are millions of legal immigrants in this country.

 

You seem to think there are only two categories: citizens and illegals.

As I understand it, most non-citizen residents are in the country legally. On work permits, student visas etc.

As a matter of law, I do not see any issue with asking the question about citizenship. But it will not affect one of the primary purposes of the census - to allocate congressional seats. And it will not identify how many people are in the country illegally.

And I do see a potential downside: non-citizens (both illegal and to a lesser extent legal) might be discouraged from responding, or might lie. So there is a risk that by asking the question, the accuracy of the census might be degraded.

 

I truly can't understand why anyone would be against knowing how many illegals are here and who they are? What other possible explanation is there besides wanting to destroy us from the inside, giving away amnesty and locking in a permanent 1 party system? Its pure suicide for the country. Have these politicians not seen what the state of Latin America is compared to ours? On what planet is their situation better? Why on earth would we want to emulate their lifestyle and culture that has prevented central and south America from prospering? Their cultures have been corrupt since inception and have offered up very little in the way of innovative accomplishments of any variety...besides food and drugs. Its a death sentence for us.

 

Its not really a downside. Is it not telling that illegals are worried about being here illegally? Maybe get out if you're so worried and do it legally? Perhaps? If less ILLEGALS respond then that's less people "registered" in the area, which means less govt. representation in this districts, which is a win/win. Otherwise, illegals are skewing the numbers and give unfair advantage to congress. Illegals should NOT be represented!!!