Editorial: Citizen-only representation unconstitutional, would hurt Valley, other high-migrant areas

Far-right-wing Republicans once again are filing proposed legislation in Congress that could severely harm the Rio Grande Valley and other high-immigrant areas.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the ironically named Equal Representation Act that would require a citizenship question be added to census questionnaires and estimates. Trump signed an executive order during his term mandating such a question, but courts rightly voided the order as a violation of the Constitution’s equal representation clauses.

The House bill has little to no chance of passage in the Senate; the chamber in March rejected similar language that had been added to a federal funding bill.

And it shouldn’t pass.

The citizenship question is not meant simply to add demographic information about the American population. The bill specifically mandates excluding non-citizens — legal as well as illegal — from census counts that are used to determine congressional representation and the allocation of government funds and programs.

Such a change would severely harm the Valley, where more than one-fourth of the population was born outside the United States. Texas, which itself has a high-immigrant population, would lose several congressional seats and billions of dollars in funding for infrastructure and public services.

Courts have long ruled that representation is irrespective of citizenship. The Constitution requires that the census include the “whole number of persons in east State.” Citizenship is not addressed — a fact worth noting, since at the time of its ratification in 1788, much of the U.S. population still held citizenship from England, Denmark, France and other countries.

The reasoning should be obvious. The human rights declared in our nation’s Declaration of Independence and codified in our Constitution are exactly that — human rights, not rights exclusively for citizens.

It’s also a practical matter. Just like U.S. citizens, immigrants buy and rent homes. They work and shop, and thus pay taxes, just like everybody else. Like everybody else, they deserve the benefits that are paid with those taxes.

Underfunding areas such as the Valley would mean the use of our infrastructure would exceed the funding needed to maintain it. Police, sheriff’s departments and other law enforcement agencies wouldn’t receive funding commensurate to the population they have to protect. Public agencies wouldn’t have enough funding to adequately serve all residents who qualify for their services.

The fact that the bill actually passed the House, however, should raise concerns about the possibility of a Republican takeover of the Senate in November. With control of both chambers, such a bill certainly would be resurrected, and could make it to the president’s desk — and a President Trump would be sure to sign it if he returns to the White House.

It’s unknown if Texas’ staunch pro-Biden state officials would support such a measure, even with the knowledge that it would severely weaken the entire state’s representation, both politically and fiscally.

We trust they will see the folly of such an idea, and oppose it.