Speech #960203551

Hence. apportionment schemes "which give the same number of representatives to unequal numbers of constituents." ... unconstitutionally dilutes the value of the votes in the larger district. If the Bureau proceeds with its plans to include millions of individuals in the 1980 census who have no legal right to be in the United States. we will be authorizing apportionment schemes which give the same number of representatives to unequal numbers of constituents. In effect. constituents in the States with large concentrations of illegal aliens will have more representatives in Congress than a similar number of constituents in other States with few illegal aliens. There is no constitutional requirement that illegal aliens be counted in the census. The concept of "illegal alien" did not exist at the time the Constitution was written. The doors of the United States were completely open to anyone who wanted to immigrate during the first 150 years of our existence as a nation. It was not until 1875 that the United States first adopted a statute which specifically excluded certain classes of people from immigrating. Thus. it was only since 1875 that an individual could have been an "illegal alien." Further. the concept of not including illegal aliens in the reapportionment base corresponds perfectly with the longstanding policy of the Bureau not to include foreign tourists. diplomatic personnel. of foreign students. If we were to carry the argument of the Bureau that it should count everyone in the United States to its logical extreme. an invading foreign army which happened to be occupying a portion of the United States on April 1. 1980 would have to be counted for reapportionment purposes. Over 100 Federal assistance programs are funded completely or partially on the basis of census figures. If we count the millions of illegal aliens. the citizens of some States will receive a windfall in benefits at the expense of qualified recipients in States having few illegal aliens. Numerous Federal programs now contain prohibitions against using Federal funds to assist individuals who are not legal residents. If illegals are used to increase the amount of funds a State may be entitled to but the benefits are not distributed to them. the other residents will receive more than their fair share. Since we are dealing with limited resources. this means that needy citizens and legal residents will suffer in other States. However. if illegals manage to somehow participate in these Federal assistance programs. additional citizens and legal residents will lose benefits as a result. Given the fact that there is strong evidence from the IRS that many illegal aliens are avoiding paying taxes. they would then be given a free ride at the expense of the overburdened American taxpayer. Congress has full authority to distinguish among aliens. including illegal ones. in the granting of Federal benefits. In the case of Mathew v. Diaz. 426 U.S. 67 1976) the court stated that: The fact that Congress has provided some welfare benefits for citizens does not require it to provide like benefits for all aliens. Neither the overnight visitor. the unfriendly agent of a hostile foreign power. the resident diplomat. nor the illegal entrant. can advance even a colorable constitutional claim to a share in the country that a conscientious sovereign makes available to its own citizens and some of its guests. There is no doubt that the escalating flow of illegal aliens is reaching crisis proportions. Reliable estimates place the number of illegal aliens in the United States at somewhere between 6 to 12 million. The Border Patrol apprehended over 1 million illegal entrants last year and reliable sources within the Patrol estimate that for every illegal alien caught. two or three slipped through. Even though we do not know exactly how many illegal aliens are in the United States. we do know that small differences in the apportionment populations can alter the number of congressional seats given to a State. For example. a difference of only 250 persons in 1970 apportionment populations of Oregon caused the residents there to lose one congressional seat. We have known for a long time that the massive number of illegal aliens are robbing our unemployed of millions of jobs. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall stated in a recent interview that our high unemployment rate could be reduced to below 4 percent if the flow of illegal aliens were curtailed. However. if the Bureau of the Census succeeds in its plan to count and include illegal aliens in the 1980 census. illegal aliens will also rob millions of American citizens of the right to equal governmental representation and their right to a fair share of Federal assistance funds. This will have the effect of institutionalizing the unimpeded flow of millions of illegal aliens into the United States and will compound the already substantial economic and social costs attributable to this mass migration. The full impact of this selfdestructive cycle we are engaged in can be seen in the Department of Justices argument that States have the authority to give illegal aliens the right to vote. This is not as farfetched as it may seem if you consider that the result of the census as now proposed will be to give illegal aliens representation within Congress. I believe that the Bureau of the Census has the ability to resolve this issue by excluding illegal aliens from the reapportionment base and the population base for distributing Federal funds. The Bureau can accomplish this in one of two different ways. First. it could use whatever methodologies it chooses to assure that illegal aliens are not only counted but that they are identified as such in order to deduct them from the base figures. My bill would give them complete freedom to decide how this can be done. Acting Director of the Bureau of the Census Robert L. Hagan wrote to me on May 4. 1979. about the difficulties of developing a methodology to count illegal aliens. However. in this letter he stated: The results of the research already completed. in progress. or now planned. considered in combination should permit the development of some useful estimates of illegal alien residents .... Although the resulting estimates would probably not be definitive. practical bounds of error should be available. In other words. the Acting Director of the Bureau believed almost a year ago that the Bureau could develop a methodology for counting illegal aliens which would be statistically sound. Admittedly. it would not provide a means for assuring a completely accurate head count. However. the census itself is merely an estimate cf our population. It will not be a perfect head count as we are asked to believe. Adjustments have been made in past censuses and will also have to be made in the one this year. If it is clearly proven that there is no possible way to count illegal aliens before the reapportionment base is finalized. then the Bureau could take immediate action to assure that illegal aliens do not participate in the census. This could be accomplished by reversing the highly promoted and publicized efforts to assure illegals that they should participate in the census. Discouraging illegals from coming forward would reduce the gross distortion that would otherwise result. The most useful and beneficial procedure that could be followed would be a serious effort to actually count illegal aliens. For too long we have hidden our unwillingness to tackle the illegal alien issue behind the excuse that we do not know how serious the problem is. Last year the House Select Population Committee called for such a count. Now is the time to make that determination. Many experts believe that it can be done and even the Bureau has stated in writing that it can be accomplished within "practical bounds of error." A lawsuit was filed against the U.S. Bureau of the Census on this issue by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. I am an original coplaintiff in this suit which now has 26 coplaintiffs. most of whom are Members of Congress. One State has petitioned to file an amicus curiae brief and seven other States have indicated a willingness to take similar action.