Rep. Clyde: America Needs a Citizen-Only Census

“We the People.”

With those three words, our Founding Fathers forged our new nation into a constitutional republic. Through tremendous sacrifice and fierce debate, these wise men asserted that our government existed to serve, and ultimately acquired its legitimacy from, the people—from its citizens.

With the Enumeration Clause, they established a census to count our country’s population every 10 years to determine states’ representation and political power. From the 14th Amendment to the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, this count and its impact on our government have changed over time. But its purpose has remained the same: to allocate the number of U.S. House seats given to each state based on citizen population, which also impacts the distribution of Electoral College votes.

There was thorough debate at the Constitutional Convention, but the delegates never could have imagined that centuries later, “We the People” would be intentionally warped and weaponized to include every solitary individual in our country—regardless of citizenship or even legal status.

Our Founders also did not anticipate that the Democratic Party’s policies would turn America into a magnet for illegal immigration.

They could not fathom that Democratic mayors and governors would put out a welcome mat for and provide sanctuary to illegal aliens.

They never dreamed that our nation would become so lawless under Democratic control that any foreigner was simply a taxpayer-funded plane ride away from residing within our borders and receiving equal footing as U.S. citizens in our representative government.

Since the current census includes both illegal and legal noncitizens, the total count has been slowly chipping away at American citizens’ representation. But after the massive influx of illegal aliens under the Biden-Harris administration, this so-called “inclusive” census count is causing our constitutional republic to crumble before our very eyes.

The integrity of both U.S. citizens’ votes and representation is under serious threat of collapse if we fail to act.

On the voting front, House Republicans have repeatedly passed a commonsense solution, the SAVE America Act. This legislation would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to vote, as well as direct states to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls.

As we continue to wait for the Senate to take action on the SAVE America Act, we must also recognize that blocking noncitizens from the ballot box is not enough to protect our constitutional republic for future generations.

America needs a citizen-only census to protect the representation of every U.S. citizen from the diluting influence of noncitizens.

And yes, the difference does matter—and Democrats know it.

Republicans have long warned that Democrats’ intentional illegal invasion and sanctuary policies are rooted in a desire to boost blue states’ power.

Some Democrats have openly admitted as much, including a New York Democratic congresswoman who claimed she needs more immigrants in her district “just for redistricting purposes.”

Furthermore, findings from a Center for Immigration Studies report confirm that immigration significantly redistributes political power. For example, Democrat-leaning states saw a net increase of 14 congressional seats due to both legal and illegal migrant populations in the 2020 census.

Allowing noncitizens to tilt the balance of power in Congress is utter lunacy—and Americans agree. New polling reveals that nearly two-thirds of likely voters believe congressional apportionment should be based solely on the number of U.S. citizens.

That’s why I recently introduced the Make Apportionment Great Again (MAGA) Act. My legislation would exclude noncitizens from the current U.S. census for apportionment, trigger a reapportionment based on citizenship before the 2028 election, and add a U.S. citizenship question to the 2030 census and all future censuses.

Amid high stakes and slim margins, given that the census impacts both congressional representation and the Electoral College, we cannot wait until the 2030 census to deliver this desperately needed change.

Congress must act before the 2028 election to ensure only American citizens decide how congressional maps are drawn and who resides in the White House. My MAGA Act does just that.

Our constitutional republic only works if it stays true to who it actually represents: We the people: American citizens. We must establish a citizen-only census count to preserve the sanctity and credibility of our government for generations to come—just as our Founders intended.

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