Heads We Lose, Tails They Win: America’s Rigged Census

Joe Biden didn’t just create a border crisis — he deliberately rigged the system in which millions of illegal aliens are now being counted among American citizens in the U.S. Census. 

America faces a constitutional crisis unlike any in modern times.

To understand the magnitude of the situation we are in, consider the enormity of what’s at stake. For over two centuries, America’s decennial census has served as the constitutional foundation for fair representation in Congress, the accurate distribution of federal resources, and the determination of our President through the Electoral College. The 2020 census shattered that tradition with brazen manipulation, inaccurate data, and a refusal to ensure illegal immigrants aren’t counted when determining each state’s number of Congressional seats. Meaning states that harbored illegal immigrants and ignored federal law shortchanged law-abiding states.

That’s why I am introducing the COUNT Act to codify Executive Order 13880 into law, which ensures the U.S. Census Bureau conducts accurate census counts based on citizenship and prohibits the bureau from manipulating data. The need for this legislation has never been greater.

When Biden took office, he immediately moved to ensure that future censuses would perpetuate these problems, dismantling Trump’s efforts to collect citizenship data. This was a blatant attempt to orchestrate the most sophisticated attack on future census integrity since Reconstruction. The same regime that demolished border security and flooded America with millions of illegal immigrants then systematically destroyed the tools needed to exclude them from congressional representation. They killed the citizenship data collection project and deployed “differential privacy,” a euphemism for data manipulation, to scramble future census numbers. 

This was a calculated preparation for electoral manipulation disguised as statistical innovation.

The Democrats figured out the perfect con: transform illegal immigration into political power while American citizens pay the price. Every illegal immigrant counted toward congressional representation dilutes the voice of our own American citizens. States that enforce immigration law lose representation to sanctuary states that harbor criminals. The message couldn’t be clearer: break America’s laws, gain political power; follow America’s laws, lose your voice.

Consider this: a district in California packed with illegal immigrants wields the same congressional power as a district of law-abiding citizens in Kansas. The result is that American citizens’ votes carry different weights depending on how many lawbreakers their state harbors.

This is taxation without representation in reverse — representation without citizenship.

The political ramifications are staggering and immediate. In 2022, the Census Bureau was finally forced to acknowledge the extent of this scandal: Republican states lost at least three congressional seats while Democratic strongholds gained seats they didn’t deserve. Florida should have gained two additional seats. Texas was shortchanged by at least one seat. Meanwhile, states like New York and California — which openly defy federal immigration laws — were rewarded with extra representation. This isn’t just about numbers; it’s about raw political power redistributed through census inaccuracies.

The Electoral College implications alone should terrify every American who believes in a legitimate election process. States that gained unearned congressional seats also gained unearned electoral votes, potentially swinging presidential elections for decades. The 2020 census problems didn’t just distort one count — they skewed the next decade of American politics. Every close congressional race, every tight Electoral College count, every razor-thin Senate battle now carries the taint of inaccurate representation built into the system.

Federal funding follows the same corrupted formula, meaning billions in taxpayer dollars flow to sanctuary states and cities based on their inflated illegal populations. Law-abiding states subsidize the very lawlessness that steals their political representation. It’s the perfect Democrat scheme: reward illegal immigration with congressional seats, electoral votes, and federal cash, while punishing states that enforce American law.

The COUNT Act (Citizen Only Updated National Tally Act) will create a block-level citizenship database, implementing a mandate that will require the Census Bureau to collect legitimate, verifiable citizenship data. This ensures, for the first time, that the bureau has the necessary information to ensure that only American citizens are counted in future censuses for the purpose of determining access to federal grant money and congressional apportionment. And while President Trump’s executive order in his first term was a critical step to ensure an accurate and legitimate decennial census, codification through my legislation is essential to prevent the census from being weaponized against Republicans in the future.

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The stakes extend far beyond statistics — this is about American citizens, and only American citizens, having the ability to decide who represents them in Washington. Federal funding formulas distribute hundreds of billions of dollars annually based on census data, creating a Democrat money-laundering operation that transforms illegal immigration into political slush funds. When sanctuary states inflate their counts through illegal residents, they don’t just steal congressional seats — they steal federal education dollars, healthcare funding, and infrastructure investments that should flow to states with actual American citizens.

The Republican Party faces an existential crisis: how do you win elections when Democrats can manufacture congressional districts through illegal immigration? Every new illegal immigrant isn’t just a border security problem — they’re a potential representation diluter, reducing Republican influence even when they can’t legally vote. Democrats have discovered the ultimate redistricting scheme: import your population, count them in the census, and let illegal immigration redraw congressional maps in your favor.

My bill eliminates this loophole once and for all.

We will not allow another census to be corrupted by political agendas and flawed processes. The Democrats turned our own census into a weapon against us. It’s time to disarm them permanently.

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August Pfluger represents Texas’s 11th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. He is the Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus on Capitol Hill, and sits on the House Committee on Energy & Commerce.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.