国会民主党人准备向总统发起法律挑战唐纳德·特朗普在2020年人口普查后，美国今天的指令将居住在美国的无证件者排除在分摊基数之外。
而2020年人口普查不包括公民身份问题，总统认为将“非法外国人”排除在外“反映了对宪法的更好理解，符合我们代议制民主的原则。”
特朗普在一份备忘录中写道:“我的政府不会支持给予非法入境或居留的外国人国会代表权，因为这样做会产生不正当的动机，破坏我们的政府体系。”“正如我们不把政治权力交给暂时在这里的人一样，我们也不应该把政治权力交给根本不应该在这里的人。”
这一声明遭到了民主党人的强烈反对，包括众议院议长南希·佩洛西，她暗示将在法庭上挑战这一努力。佩洛西说，这份备忘录是“违宪的”，并补充说，宪法明确规定，“实际列举”的“人数”用于国会分配。
佩洛西在一份声明中写道:“特朗普的非法行为旨在再次给弱势群体和传统上未被重视的群体注入恐惧和不信任，同时在人口普查中制造混乱。”“众议院将强烈反对总统破坏人口普查的违宪和非法企图。我们将保持警惕，确保进行全面、公平和准确的人口普查，并继续努力保证最大程度的参与和包容，以便每个社区的每个人都得到统计。”
在人口普查中没有公民身份问题的情况下，尚不清楚特朗普政府将如何准确确定有多少人被排除在有助于重新分配国会选区的数据之外，或者每个州在美国众议院获得多少席位。
2020年7月21日，在白宫布雷迪简报室，唐纳德·特朗普总统在冠状病毒工作队的新简报会上发言。吉姆·沃森/法新社通过盖蒂图像
上周在玫瑰园举行的新闻发布会上，总统承认居住在美国的总人数存在不确定性。
“没有人能给出确切的数字。特朗普7月14日表示:“我们正试图得到一个准确的数字。”“但是，这些年来，有很多非法移民来到这个国家，所以这取决于你想怎么数。但你可以说有3.25亿到3.5亿人。”
佩洛西说，宪法明确要求在人口统计和国会分配中“实际计算”人口的“总数”。
在...中新冠肺炎鉴于去年关于公民身份问题的辩论言辞激烈，人口普查已经面临着与许多社区的艰难斗争。
总统备忘录的反对者认为，眼前不仅仅是一个国会代表的问题，不管结果如何，影响可能仍然存在。
“特朗普只是通过在公众心目中进一步将移民和人口普查联系起来而赢得了胜利，”迈克尔·卡根(Michael Kagan)说。他是美国全国移民联合会(UNLV)移民诊所主任，也是马里兰州一个案件的原告。去年夏天，该案件就人口普查公民身份问题提出了最后禁令之一。“如果这导致一些移民家庭害怕人口普查，那就达到了低估不同社区人口的目的。”
国会选区是根据人口普查得出的数据进行分配的，人口普查包括家庭中的每个人以及无家可归的人口。
一旦人口普查完成，人口普查局必须在2021年4月30日前向总统提交其分配数-四个月后比原计划的要多，由于大流行。
去年，最高法院阻止政府增加一个关于公民身份的人口普查问题，但为另一个追踪非公民的尝试敞开了大门。
特朗普称这一决定“荒谬”，并表示他不会让步。然后，在2019年7月，白宫发布了一项行政命令，收集非公民的政府数据，包括那些合法居住在美国的人。
总统的备忘录称，他在2019年7月11日签署的一项行政命令中声称拥有权力，该命令要求商务部长使用一份报告中的方法，设定人口普查居住标准和居住情况，“以使商务部长能够获得该国公民、非公民和非法外国人的准确数据。”
这种方法在2020年最终人口普查居住标准和居住情况，83联邦。Reg。5525，a168页的文档已于2018年2月8日发布在联邦公报上。
该文件指出，分摊“是基于居民人口，加上海外联邦雇员的计数，为每个50个州。”
它还指出，人口普查局“将保留对在美国的外国公民的建议居住情况的指导。”
它写道:“如果在人口普查时，外国公民大部分时间是在美国的住所居住和睡觉，那么他们就被认为‘生活’在美国。”
此举激励了许多国会民主党人，而共和党人在很大程度上没有对备忘录做出反应。
加州民主党众议员诺玛·托雷斯(Norma Torres)在一份声明中写道:“特朗普总统是一个顽固不化的种族主义者，他正在利用权力杠杆伤害他所憎恨的人。”“在人口普查中不被计算在内是我们的政府看不到的——我们的政府不知道有这样的人，我们没有支持他们的系统。”这个国家的最高职位落到如此低的人手中已经有很长时间了，我们只能希望，一旦他给这个国家蒙上的阴影最终消失，这种事情就不会再发生了。”
亚利桑那州众议员劳尔·格里贾瓦(Raul Grijalva)指出:“这一行政命令违反宪法，其目的只是为了取悦特朗普的竞选团队，激起反移民反应。”“就在选举前夕，特朗普和斯蒂芬·米勒(Stephen Miller)正在奋力争取一些可以坚持的东西。”
众议院多数党领袖斯泰尼·霍耶(Steny Hoyer，D-Md)认为:“无证移民生活在我们的社区，必须被视为人，这不仅是为了准确，也是为了承认他们作为人和我们的邻居的尊严。”“我们决不能让我们的宪法受到这位总统的进一步破坏，他无视宪法条款，蔑视宪法所保护的法治。”
美国公民自由联盟也宣布准备在法庭上反对这项命令。
美国公民自由联盟投票权项目主任戴尔·何说:“宪法要求在人口普查中把美国的每个人都计算在内。”“特朗普总统不能挑挑拣拣。他试图在人口普查中加入公民身份问题，但在最高法院失败了。他最近试图将人口普查武器化以攻击移民社区，这将被认为是违宪的。我们将在法庭上见到他，并再次获胜。”
President Trump signs memorandum to exclude undocumented people living in US from congressional apportionment
Congressional Democrats are poised to mount a legal challenge to PresidentDonald Trump's directive today to exclude undocumented people living in the United States from the apportionment base following the 2020 census.
While the2020 censusdoes not include a citizenship question, the president argued that excluding "illegal aliens" from the count "reflects a better understanding of the Constitution and is consistent with the principles of our representative democracy."
"My Administration will not support giving congressional representation to aliens who enter or remain in the country unlawfully, because doing so would create perverse incentives and undermine our system of government," Trump wrote in a memorandum. "Just as we do not give political power to people who are here temporarily, we should not give political power to people who should not be here at all."
That statement was met with stiff opposition from Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who signaled she would challenge the effort in court. Pelosi said that the memo is "unconstitutional," adding that the Constitution makes clear that the "actual enumeration" of the "who number of persons" is used for congressional apportionment.
"Trump's unlawful effort is designed to again inject fear and distrust into vulnerable and traditionally undercounted communities, while sowing chaos with the Census," Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote in a statement. "The House of Representatives will vigorously contest the President's unconstitutional and unlawful attempt to impair the Census. We will be vigilant to ensure a full, fair and accurate Census and continue working to guarantee maximum participation and inclusion so that every person in every community is counted."
Absent the citizenship question on the census, it is unclear how the Trump administration would accurately determine how many people to exclude from the data that contributes to reapportionment of Congressional Districts, or how many seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives.
During a news conference in the Rose Garden last week, the president acknowledged uncertainty regarding the total number of people living in the United States.
"Nobody can give the exact count. We're trying to get an exact count," Trump said July 14. "But you have, over the years, many illegals who have come into the country, so it depends on how you want to count it. But you could say 325 to 350 million people."
Pelosi said the Constitution unambiguously requires an "actual enumeration" of the "whole numbers of persons" for the population count and congressional apportionment.
Amid theCOVID-19pandemic, and given the rhetoric of last year's debate over the citizenship question, the census is already facing an uphill battle with a lot of communities.
Opponents of the presidential memorandum argue there is much more than a congressional representation issue at hand, and regardless of if it pans out, impacts may still be felt.
"Trump wins just by further connecting immigration and the census in the public mind," said Michael Kagan, a UNLV Immigration Clinic director and a plaintiff in a Maryland case that produced one of the final injunctions on the census citizenship question last summer. "If that leads some immigrant families to fear the census, that accomplishes the same goal of undercounting the population of diverse communities."
Congressional districts are apportioned according to data derived from census, which counts every person in a household, as well as the homeless population.
Once the census is completed, the Census Bureau must deliver its apportionment count to the president by April 30, 2021 --four months laterthan originally scheduled,due to the pandemic.
Last year, the Supreme Court blocked the administration from adding a census question about citizenship, but left the door open for another attempt to track non-citizens.
Trump called the decision "ridiculous," and said he wasn't backing down. Then, in July 2019, the White House issued an executive order to gather government data on non-citizens, including those living in the country legally.
The president's memo says he claims his authority from an executive order signed on July 11, 2019, which asks the Secretary of Commerce to use methodology from a report setting Census Residence Criteria and Residence Situations "to allow the Secretary to obtain accurate data on the number of citizens, non-citizens, and illegal aliens in the country."
That methodology is set forth in the Final 2020 Census Residence Criteria and Residence Situations, 83 Fed. Reg. 5525, a168-page documentposted to the federal register on Feb. 8, 2018.
That document states that apportionment "is based on the resident population, plus a count of overseas federal employees, for each of the 50 states."
It also states that the Census Bureau "will retain the proposed residence situation guidance for foreign citizens in the United States."
"Foreign citizens are considered to be 'living' in the United States if, at the time of the census, they are living and sleeping most of the time at a residence in the United States," it reads.
The move has energized many congressional Democrats, while Republicans have largely abstained from reacting to the memorandum.
"President Trump is a bigot and a racist, and he's using the levers of power to harm the people he hates," Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., wrote in a statement. "To go uncounted in the census is to be unseen by our government -- there are no support systems in place for people our government doesn't know exist. It's been a long time since this nation's highest office fell to someone this low, and we can only hope that it never happens again once the shadow he casts on this nation is finally gone."
"This executive order is unconstitutional and only serves the purpose to please Trump's campaign and stoke anti-immigrant reactions," Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., noted. "Right before the election, Trump and Stephen Miller are flailing for something to hold on to."
"Undocumented immigrants live in our communities and must be counted as persons -- not only for the sake of accuracy, but for the recognition of their dignity as human beings and as our neighbors," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., argued. "We must not allow our Constitution to be further undermined by this president who has demonstrated no regard for its articles and disdain for the rule of law it protects."
The American Civil Liberties Union also announced it is prepared to fight the order in court.
"The Constitution requires that everyone in the U.S. be counted in the census," said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project. "President Trump can't pick and choose. He tried to add a citizenship question to the census and lost in the Supreme Court. His latest attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities will be found unconstitutional. We'll see him in court, and win, again."
