Speech #960203551

I am introducing a bill today with Senator HEINZ as cosponsor. which will prevent a gross constitutional inequity by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The Bureau intends to make a concerted effort to include all illegal aliens in the United States in the 1980 census. The impact of this will be twofold. First. it will distort the reapportionment base and result in some States receiving more congressional Representatives than they would be entitled to. absent the large illegal alien population. Since the number of Representatives is now fixed at 435. other States will lose Representatives they would otherwise retain. Second. approximately $50 billion in Federal funds are distributed partially or completely on the basis of population figures. The concentration of illegal aliens in a few States will channel limited Federal funds away from States with few illegal aliens. From all indications. the 1980 census will be the most thorough count of people in the United States ever undertaken. As part of this effort to count everyone. the Census Bureau intends to make a special effort to count illegal aliens. The Bureau has undertaken substantial advertising and public relations campaigns to encourage illegal aliens to cooperate in the 1980 census. Illegal aliens are. in effect. being promised temporary immunity from our immigration laws and are being coached on the benefits that will accrue to their communities in the form of Federal funds if they come forward to be counted. In cooperation with this effort. the Immigration and Naturalization Service has supended searches of residential neighborhoods with known concentrations of illegal aliens so that they will not be frightened off when the census takers arrive. Government moneys have been spent for the placement of newspaper ads and TV spots directed toward educating illegal aliens on the 1980 census and the importance of their response to it. The Bureau bases its decision to count illegal aliens upon an extremely narrow interpretation of the Constitution. Basically. the Bureau argues that article 1. section 2 of the Constitution requires that the Bureau count the "whole number of persons" in the States for the purposes of determining representation. Unfortunately. this interpretation does not correspond to the intent of the article.