Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier petitioned the U.S. Census Bureau this week to change how it conducts the next national headcount, arguing that errors in the 2020 Census cost Florida at least one congressional seat and an additional Electoral College vote.
The filing asks the bureau to begin a formal rulemaking process ahead of the 2030 Census and contends that the 2020 enumeration undercounted Florida by about 3.5%, or roughly 761,000 people, while some other states were overcounted.
“The Census was designed to ensure equal representation for citizens of the United States, not those who are here illegally or temporarily,” said Uthmeier. “The way we count our population has a direct impact on how political power is distributed across the nation, and our state deserves an accurate count that ensures Floridians are represented fairly.”
In the petition, the state argues that the bureau should ask every person about citizenship and immigration status and should exclude from congressional apportionment people who are in the country unlawfully or only temporarily. The filing also argues that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present should not be counted in the apportionment base, an argument that goes beyond current census practice and longstanding federal interpretations of citizenship.
The attorney general further states in the filing that the bureau’s current definition of “usual residence” is too broad because it counts people based largely on where they live and sleep, rather than whether they have what the petition calls an enduring tie or allegiance to the United States.
The petition also challenges the bureau’s use of statistical techniques in the 2020 Census, including “Group Quarters Imputation” and “Differential Privacy.”
“Representation in the United States Congress belongs to the American people—citizens and those on the lawful path to citizenship—not to those who have defied our laws to be here,” said James Rogers, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. “Every congressional seat awarded on the basis of illegal alien population is a seat taken from law-abiding Americans. The 2030 Census is an opportunity to get this right and conduct an actual enumeration of the American people as the Constitution demands, free of the distortions that come from counting those with no lawful claim to be here and free of statistical trickery. The reforms Florida and AFL have proposed in this petition for rulemaking are grounded in law, in history, and in common sense.”
