Four states file lawsuit to prevent unauthorized immigrants from being included in census count for redistributing congressional seats and electoral votes.

The attorneys general of Louisiana, Kansas, Ohio, and West Virginia are challenging the U.S. Census Bureau's decision to include illegal immigrants in the count used to allocate congressional seats and electoral votes.

A lawsuit filed in Louisiana federal court on Sunday, the day before President Donald Trump left office, claims that the Biden administration included illegal immigrants in the 2020 census population tally to allocate congressional seats and electoral votes. As a result, Ohio and West Virginia lost a congressional seat and an electoral vote to states with larger populations of illegal immigrants and temporary visa holders.

Texas gained one congressional seat and one electoral vote, while California retained a congressional seat and an electoral vote that it would have lost otherwise.

If the practice continues, it is likely that both Louisiana and Kansas will lose one congressional seat and one electoral vote in the 2030 reapportionment, according to the attorneys general.

"Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill stated that it is unlawful to count illegal aliens in the census for determining Congressional seats and electoral votes, and that the state has filed a lawsuit to prevent it."

The U.S. Census Bureau established the "Residence Rule" in February 2018, which stipulates that foreign nationals residing in the U.S. are included in the census and assigned to the state where they maintain their usual residence, regardless of their legal status and the validity of any visas they may possess.

The lawsuit alleges that after the 2020 census, Gina Raimondo, as Commerce Secretary under former President Biden, along with the Census Bureau and its director, Robert Santos, made the decision to include "illegal aliens and aliens holding temporary visas ('nonimmigrant aliens') in the census figures used for determining the apportionment of the House of Representatives and Electoral College votes."

The lawsuit alleges that the Residence Rule infringes on the Fourteenth Amendment's equal representation principle by taking away the rightful share of political representation from the Plaintiff States and redistributing political power to states with a high number of illegal aliens and nonimmigrant aliens, as well as Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution by necessitating an unconstitutional distribution of Electoral College votes among the states.

"The Residence Rule violates the federal government's constitutional obligation to conduct an "actual Enumeration" of the number of "persons in each State," according to a lawsuit. The phrase "persons in each State" was originally understood to refer only to United States citizens and permanent resident aliens who had been lawfully admitted to the body politic established by the Constitution. However, the lawsuit notes that aliens who are unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States do not qualify because they are not entitled to political representation. It has long been understood that foreign diplomats temporarily in the U.S. also do not qualify. Nevertheless, the Fourteenth Amendment requires that illegal aliens who have been denied the right to vote be excluded from state apportionment. As a result, the actual enumeration of the population of the states cannot include such aliens, and only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents ("LPRs," also known as "green card holders") can be included."

The lawsuit highlights that the large and highly concentrated illegal alien population in a minority of states affects the distribution of seats in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. The lawsuit also mentions research indicating that there are approximately 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and that the United States has experienced the largest wave of immigration in its history over the past three decades.

The lawsuit claims that counting illegal aliens in the census takes voting power away from some Americans and gives it to others. President Trump has pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and declared a state of emergency at the southern border on his first day in office. The impact of the lawsuit on the incoming Trump administration is uncertain.