"Undocumented immigrants cost states electoral votes" ... I just heard on a bleeding heart NPR story this evening. Well, since 'undocumented immigrants' don't get to vote, don't have a Congressman, don't have social security numbers (not real ones), often are not fluent in English (in which all signage, warnings, maps, directions, instructions, are printed in the U.S.)... then they Don't Get an Electoral Vote to begin with, so they don't have to worry about "losing" one.
Do it the way my family, both mom's and dad's sides did, immigrate to the U.S. legally. Learn the language (basically, not fluently - none of my great grand parents spoke English very well). Study for, take, and proudly pass the citizenship test, and join us, your fellow Americans.
I'm not xenophobic, or an exclusionary elitist. I just don't see why "New Rules" need to be developed to grant certain populous ethnic groups "exemptions", or a "lower bar", or "special status" when they can get in line, like all us Pollacks, Gulashes, Potato Eating Irish, Whops, Krauts, Ruskies and others have. Don't fill out your census form, that's fine. The representative government in the U.S. is for it's citizens, and those holding valid green cards (hence, documented workers). I don't expect to have a vote or a voice when I visit France or Mexico. There was no member of The Great People's Assembly who gave a damn about me during the 13 trips I took to China from 1999 to 2002 when I spent 6 months of my life there.
Earn your citizenship, and then you can become part of the Clusterf*ck that is the US Electoral system. Before that time, you don't get represented, and that works just fine.
8 years ago
I still don't see how undocumented folks cost states electoral votes and/or congressional representation. The census counts people, mostly citizens and documented immigrants, and that determines their representation in the House...as well as in the electoral college. The more people they can count, including the undocumented, the better off that state will be. And it;s not like undocumented people are crowding out citizens and documented folks: people tend to flock to states for other reasons, and I suspect the undocumented population grows roughly alongside the documented population.
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