Texas stands to be a big loser if the US Supreme Court sides with President Trump’s call to not include undocumented immigrants on the 2020 Census. On Monday the Court heard arguments on whether President Trump’s memorandum calling for the exclusion of undocumented migrants from the Census count was unlawful.
It’s been anticipated that the latest population boom in Texas would result in a new high of over 30-million people, leading to the creation of as many as three new seats in Congress. The 30-million would include an estimated population of undocumented migrants ranging somewhere between 1.6 and 1.9 million.
If the Supreme Court were to approve of the President’s memorandum, Texas would take a hit both financially and politically according to Edger Saldivar, Sr. Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Texas. “Texas is one of the few States that were identified in the documents and in the pleadings as potentially losing a congressional seat as a result of not counting undocumented persons in the state,” said Saldivar. He added that the Census was never intended to be a count of all American citizens in the state. “There isn't a requirement to distinguish people between those who are citizens or not citizens,” said Saldivar. “It's intended to count all persons who reside in the state.” This mirrored an argument made by the ACLU before the US Supreme Court on Monday.
As for financially, it’s been estimated that just a 1% undercount of the 2020 Census would cost Texas as much as $300-million in federal funding per year over the next ten years.