The Secret Impact of Illegal Immigration in America

Every year the impact to American society will continue to get worse without a dramatic reform of our broken federal immigration system. In the year 2000, there were an estimated seven million illegal aliens in the United States of America. By the year 2010, that number of illegal aliens in the country will nearly double.

Illegal immigration is a problem that is impacting American society in a variety of dubious ways. It is unfair to immigrants who are following the proper path to citizenship. It is unfair to our entire health care system which must accept the responsibility of treating patients without compensation. It is unfair burden on our overcrowded courts and our legal system.

In addition, because of the increasing size of the illegal alien population in this country, once every decade the problem of illegal immigration in America secretly becomes even worse. This is because the inclusion of illegal aliens in the United States Census acts to compromise the Founding Fathers' principal of fair and equal representation for each and every citizen.

You may ask how counting illegal aliens in the United States Census compromises the basic principals of our Constitution. Well, it is because each state's total census population is used as a basis for the once a decade calculation of Congressional Apportionment, which is the distribution of the 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives among the 50 states. In addition that apportionment is used as the basis to distribute more than $200 billion in federal aid to the states each year.

That's right, a large number of illegal immigrants in a state's census population could increase its representation in Congress, electoral votes, and lead to a subsequent increase in federal aid every year for a decade. Illegal aliens have this type of secret impact even though they are not citizens and cannot vote.

So, having a large number of illegal immigrants around at the time of the next census in 2010 is a pretty good idea if your state wants a chance at more congressional representation, more electoral votes, and increased federal aid for the next decade. Of course, counting illegal aliens in the Census also acts to compromise fair and equal representative government for citizens in states that do not have a large illegal immigration problem.

However, illegal aliens need to be here in 2010 to be included in the next census count. Strong federal enforcement through immigration raids may act to scare illegal aliens away before that date. This may be the reason why we hear complaints from some states about those recent immigration raids to enforce Federal law during the last seven months.

In evaluating the potential ramifications of the next Congressional apportionment in 2010, consider the report late last year by the University of Connecticut State Data Center. The report is an early projection on how the nation's growing population of illegal immigrants would amplify the movement of Congressional seats to the South and West . The Connecticut report predicts that "Arizona, Texas, and Florida will all hold additional seats in Congress after the next census, in part because of their illegal immigrant populations."

"California and New Jersey would keep their current amount of seats in the House under the current system. Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, and Ohio will each have one fewer seat than they would otherwise have because they have relatively few undocumented immigrants. New York, which would lose two seats under the current system, would lose only one if illegal immigrants were excluded." Two of California's projected fifty three House seats would be the result of its undocumented population.

The report makes this conclusion, "Illegal immigration is concentrating the power of voters in states such as California, Texas, and Arizona, which have more seats in Congress per legal resident than many states where the number of illegal immigrants is much smaller".

So, citizens in the Northeast United States will be the victims of the national problem of illegal immigration. Several states in that region will lose proper political representation. States in the Southwest will have more representation than they really deserve. The problem exists because of the inclusion of illegal aliens in the United States Census.

Fairness and accuracy of the census were of the highest importance to the Founding Fathers. They felt that by using the census to determine taxes, states would be discouraged from "fudging" their populations upward to increase their representation in Congress.

While the census was no longer used in tax collection after 1913 when the 16th Amendment established direct individual taxation, its role in maintaining representative government remains today. It's a role that is currently being compromised by states "fudging" populations upward by the inclusion in the Census of more than thirteen million illegal aliens, who are not citizens and cannot vote.

The 2010 impact of including illegal aliens in the United States Census which will act as a basis for Congressional Apportionment undercuts the Founding Fathers intention of fair and equal representation for every American citizen. It is the secret impact of the current problem of illegal immigration in America.

In fact, the problem is destined to become even worse with each passing decade as long as the current immigration system remains broken and this current dubious formula for Congressional apportionment remains in place.