Illegals count skews accounting

Louisiana is among 10 states that will lose at least one congressional district in 2012. That was determined by U.S. Census figures calculated from the total national population and evenly divided to form those districts. The greater the populations in any given state, the more seats offered in Congress n fair enough on the surface.

Of the states losing seats, only Michigan showed a significant population decline n 10 million to 9.8 million n between the U.S. Census conducted in 2000 and the national headcount made in 2010.

The state with the greatest increase of population during that decade, and in turn will add four congressional seats, is Texas with numbers being boosted from 21 million to 25 million.

Even with a loss of residents from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 the overall population in Louisiana actually increased modestly from 4.46 million in 2000 to 4.49 million in 2010.

It appears to observers that a lack of significant growth, and not necessarily population loss played against Louisiana and nine other states.

However, it is where a good portion of growth in the eight states that will gain districts came from that is the real issue.

Steve Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Tri-Parish Times on Thursday that immigration n both legal and illegal n did play a role in Louisiana’s lost congressional seat.

“Had we had no immigration, legal or illegal, then Louisiana would not have lost a seat,” Camarota said.

Immigration might not have alone caused eight states to grow more rapidly than the ones that lost congressional districts, but Camarota confirmed it most likely played a part in the overall mathematical calculations.

According to Camarota, immigration accounted for three-quarters of the U.S. population growth during the past decade. This researcher also confirmed that federal immigration policies are at the root of a population boost of 27 million in just 10 years. It played a role in where those immigrants, both legal and illegal, settled, and in turn what states gained and lost congressional representation.

While we welcome legal immigration, it concerns us that an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants n a number that by itself represents populations for 14 congressional seats n were added to the calculation for representation for taxpaying Americans of all national origins. Something does not add up.