So the Census Bureau is teaming up with community organizations that can reach out to this population. The bureau had contracted with ACORN to be part of the Census count, until that organization came under heavy criticism after two conservative activists videotaped ACORN workers giving tax advice to what they thought were a pimp and a prostitute. So the bureau has dropped plans to use ACORN but will be using other groups, including Hispanic and immigrant advocacy organizations and the Service Employees International Union.
The problem, of course, is that there is enormous potential for a census count that includes illegal immigrants to skew the political process. It will mean some congressional districts will include huge numbers of persons who aren't eligible to vote -- and whose elected leaders therefore aren't really democratically accountable. It so happens that many of these districts will elect Democrats, since illegal immigrants often settle in poorer neighborhoods, whose legal residents and citizens tend to vote Democratic. So congressional Democrats and the White House are more than happy to see voting power shift to these new rotten boroughs.
This problem has been going on for decades -- but it's gotten worse as the numbers of illegal immigrants has increased. But no previous administration has gone to the lengths that the Obama administration is planning to make sure that each and every illegal immigrant is counted next year. The decision to team up with advocacy groups and unions like the SEIU make clear that the intention is baldly political.
Estimates are that if illegal immigrants are counted in the 2010 census, California will keep two seats it would otherwise lose (since that state has been losing citizen residents at a rapid rate) and Arizona and Texas will each pick up seats. The big loser will be the Midwest, however, with a loss of six seats among five states, according to a study by the Connecticut State Data Center. But the real issue is what this will mean to individual voters in districts that are made up mostly of citizens. Their votes will, in effect, be diluted by the votes of citizens who live in districts where large numbers of illegal immigrants live.
This change has the potential to dramatically alter the meaning of representative democracy. If the Obama administration succeeds in counting 12 million illegal immigrants in next year's census, its impact will be to disenfranchise an equal number of U.S. citizens.