Donald Trump made no secret of the fact that he desperately wanted to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census, but following a series of embarrassing failures, the then-president’s effort collapsed in 2019.
The underlying Republican goal, however, remains a partisan priority, as became clear on Capitol Hill this week. The Associated Press reported on GOP efforts to alter the 2030 count.
Some Republicans in Congress are pushing to require a citizenship question on the questionnaire for the once-a-decade census and exclude people who aren’t citizens from the count that helps determine political power in the United States. The GOP-led House on Wednesday passed a bill that would eliminate noncitizens from the tally gathered during a census and used to decide how many House seats and Electoral College votes each state gets.
The Republicans’ oddly named “Equal Representation Act” cleared the House on Wednesday on a party-line vote: GOP members were unanimous in their support for the bill, while Democrats were unanimous in their opposition.
The measure now heads to the Democratic-led Senate, where it will be ignored. President Joe Biden has also already announced his opposition to the legislation.
Many Republicans and their allies responded to the vote by suggesting that opponents were somehow taking a radical, far-left position. That’s silly: In every census for centuries, by constitutional mandate, officials have set out to count people, not just citizens. The Democratic position is to leave the status quo intact.
It’s GOP members who appear eager to make a radical change — which even Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices have already blocked once.
Nevertheless, Stephen Miller, a controversial member of Trump’s inner circle, went so far as to argue via social media this week that Democrats voted “to give illegals representation in Congress AND the Electoral College.” The missive was endorsed by Elon Musk soon after. The assertions weren’t even close to being true, though the claims are likely to become far-right orthodoxy (if they aren’t already). The AP’s report added, “[O]pponents say the idea, once on the ideological fringe, has never gotten so far in the legislative process.” It’s an important detail. In the not-too-distant past, changing the census this way would’ve been a priority for anti-immigrant extremists — and no one else. In 2024, this same idea reached the U.S. House floor and received unanimous support from the Republican conference, including ostensible “moderates” and members from competitive districts.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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