Salter asks: Should the Census ask citizenship question?

Sid Salter writes in Sunday's Clarion Ledger about the current controversy regarding whether or not Census 2010 questionnaires should include a question about citizenship. What do you think?

From his column...

The notion that the Constitution guarantees representation in the U.S. House of Representatives to noncitizens is one that seems contradictory on its face.

That notion suggests that if a planeload of Russians lands in Attala County, they immediately become entitled to representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and that they should be counted by the Census Bureau in order to apportion Mississippi's congressional districts.

14th Amendment
Yet that's exactly what some constitutional scholars suggest to be the fact under the 14th Amendment and what they suggest is "settled law." George Mason University professor Michael P. McDonald, who studies the drawing of congressional districts, recently told The Washington Times newspaper that constitutional language is clear and that congressional seats must be allocated based on the total number of people - including illegal immigrants.

Every decade, the 435 seats in the House are divided among the states based on population. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says (in part): "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed."

But should that number include noncitizen illegal immigrants?

In a Wall Street Journal essay in August, Louisiana State University constitutional law professor John S. Baker and Louisiana demographic analyst Elliott Stonecipher countered McDonald's assessment: "Next year's census will determine the apportionment of House members and Electoral College votes for each state. To accomplish these vital constitutional purposes, the enumeration should count only citizens and persons who are legal, permanent residents. But it won't. Instead, the U.S. Census Bureau is set to count all persons physically present in the country - including large numbers who are here illegally."