From Counting to Subtraction: Politicizing Apportionment

Count on Your Census

When does the definition of a “person” become contentious? The mandate to “count all persons” includes undocumented immigrants. But some are trying to exclude them as people in the current census. It starts with a constitutionally mandated decennial census count that says the census must count “all persons” living in the U.S. and that count leads to how 435 seats in the US House of Representatives apportioned among our 50 states. But in 2020 this is the first time that a president has intervened in this process by attempting to subtract, rather than count, all persons. Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel of MALDEF-the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund- walks us through President Trump’s unprecedented executive memo and issues a collective call to action.