The census is used to divvy up seats in the House as a proportion of their population based on the headcount. More people equals more seats. More illegal immigrants counted equals more power.

This is not hypothetical. The Center for Immigration Studies determined that in the 2000 election cycle, the presence of non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, temporary visitors and green-card holders, caused nine seats in the House to switch hands. As the think tank's analysis reported: California added six seats it would not have had otherwise. Texas, New York and Florida each gained a seat. Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin each lost a seat. Montana, Kentucky and Utah each failed to secure a seat they would otherwise have gained.

Translation in plain English: Open borders have profound consequences. And they don't end with congressional apportionment. The redistribution of power extends to presidential elections because the Electoral College is pegged to the size of congressional delegations.

Under the Carter administration, the men and women who enforce our immigration laws were ordered not to do their jobs during the census count; non-enforcement was the unspoken policy during the Bush administration in 2000. Bipartisan policy, in other words, was to put political interests above security interests and leave No Illegal Alien Left Behind.

The Obama Department of Homeland Security is already continuing the tradition -- reversing the work of investigative agents who have uncovered massive document fraud at illegal alien worksites, and cutting immigration and customs enforcement operations at the knees.

During the eight years of the Bush administration, groups such as ACORN received millions of dollars in subsidies. The pro-amnesty faction of the GOP pandered to unions such as the SEIU and ethnic lobbying groups such as Voto Latino seeking to boost their membership rolls.

Now Republicans can only stand by helplessly while the political opponents they helped fund use the census to wipe them off the electoral map. You reap what you sow.