House Committee Advances Bill to Exclude Noncitizens from Census Count

This bill would require the census to ask whether each person in a household is an undocumented immigrant, which could discourage undocumented people from responding to the census at all. More importantly, by excluding noncitizens from apportionment counts, communities with large undocumented populations would lose political representation in Congress and the Electoral College, reducing their ability to advocate for resources and services.

Legal visa holders — including workers on H-1B visas, students on F-1 visas, and others — would no longer be counted when deciding how many House seats each state gets. This means communities where large numbers of legal immigrants live would lose political representation, even though those residents pay taxes and use public services. The census would also categorize them separately, potentially raising privacy concerns.

Lawful permanent residents (green card holders) would be excluded from apportionment counts under this bill, even though they live, work, and pay taxes in the U.S. permanently. Their communities would receive less congressional representation and fewer Electoral College votes. This is a significant change since the Constitution has historically counted all persons, not just citizens, for apportionment.

This bill doesn't directly target LGBTQ individuals, but the broader principle of reducing census participation in diverse urban areas could indirectly affect representation in communities where LGBTQ populations are concentrated. However, the connection is indirect enough that the impact is minor.

Naturalized citizens would still be counted for apportionment since they are U.S. citizens. However, the new citizenship question on the census could create confusion or anxiety in immigrant households where some members are citizens and others are not, potentially leading to lower census response rates in these communities. This could indirectly reduce the accuracy of population counts in areas with many naturalized citizens.