Equal representation in the U.S. House of Representatives is at the very core of our constitutional system. Last year. in commenting on a bill similar to this amendment. which would eliminate illegal aliens from U.S. Census tabulations in apportioning Representatives in Congress. the U.S. Justice Department took the position that the bill was unconstitutional. and that. if it were passed. the Department would recommend that the President veto the bill. The Justice Department has reiterated this position as recently as 2 weeks ago. In a letter to Senator JEFF BINGAMAN on September 22. the Assistant Attorney General for Legislation stated: In the past. the Department of Justice has taken the position that section two of the fourteenth amendment which provides for "counting the whole number of persons in each State" and the original apportionment and census clauses of article I section two of the Constitution require that inhabitants of States who are illegal aliens be included in the census count. In our review of this issue to date. we have found no basis for reversing this position. In interpreting the 14th amendment. the Supreme Court has read the word "person" to include illegal aliens. In Plymer v. Dole. 457 U.S. 202. 210 (1982). the Court said. Whatever his status under the immigration laws. an alien is surely a "person" in any ordinary sense of that term. Aliens. even aliens whose presence in this country is unlawful. have long been recognized as "persons" guaranteed due process of law by the 5th and 14th amendments. Adoption of a provision such as the Senates census amendment. one that is so clearly unconstitutional. will do nothing but disrupt. delay. and confuse preparations for the 1990 decennial census and the 1992 reapportionment of the U.S.
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immigration illegal aliens