by Jack Davis, Western Journal
March 11, 2024

Illegal immigrants are tilting the balance of power towards Democrats, who are refusing to change the practice of counting them in the Census.

“Most Americans do not know that the US census currently counts, for purposes of voting power, all people in a district, regardless of citizenship!” Musk posted on X Friday, in a post with 19.2 million views as of Sunday night.

“Senate Democrats just voted unanimously to defeat an amendment that would have stopped counting illegals for congressional seat apportionment and electoral college (presidential) votes,” he wrote.

Musk noted that counting illegal immigrants helped Democrats.

“Since illegals are mostly in Democrat states, both the House and the Presidential vote are shifted ~5% to the left, which is enough to change the entire balance of power! This is a major reason why the Biden administration is ushering in record levels of illegals and doing so few deportations,” he wrote.

The post came the same day that Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee saw an amendment go down to defeat that would have banned counting illegal immigrants for Census purposes.

“Today I forced Chuck Schumer to hold a vote on whether illegal aliens should be counted for determining the number of congressional seats and electoral votes each state gets,” he wrote in a news release on his website.

“Democrats’ unanimous opposition to this commonsense measure confirms that they’re using illegal aliens and sanctuary cities to increase their political power,” he wrote.

“With this vote, Senate Democrats chose to trample on the rights of each American’s voice. I will continue to fight and press this issue in the Senate,” he wrote.

Hagerty has said that he believes “most people in America are shocked to find out that we count the presence of illegal immigrants in determining the allocation of congressional districts and electoral votes,” according to Fox News.

“But if you think about the motives for the crime that’s taking place at our southern border, that is it. That’s what the Democrats are trying to do,” he said. “And it’s a sheer power grab. It’s cynical as hell, and it’s actually the most straightforward explanation of why they would tolerate this carnage and mayhem. It’s in order to retain and gain power.”

As noted by Fox News, President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order required the Census Bureau to count everyone, regardless of citizenship status.

“Illegal immigration has all kinds of effects and among them is that it distorts the mechanics of democratic government,” Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said.

“Illegal immigrants aren’t even supposed to be here, so their inclusion in the Census count for purposes of apportionment really is outrageous.

“There are a lot of close votes in Congress, more than there used to be. So, it can, in fact, make a difference,” Krikorian said.

Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, said counting illegal immigrants for reapportionment purposes “doesn’t get enough attention, and with millions coming in right now, it deserves a bright, hot spotlight.”