{"id":18484,"date":"2021-02-19T03:53:44","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T03:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/02\/19\/in-u-turn-feds-defend-including-undocumented-in-house-count\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:44:33","slug":"in-u-turn-feds-defend-including-undocumented-in-house-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/federal-oversight\/doj-fbi\/2021\/02\/19\/in-u-turn-feds-defend-including-undocumented-in-house-count\/","title":{"rendered":"In U-turn, feds defend including undocumented in House count"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a reversal of policy under then-President Donald Trump, Biden administration attorneys are arguing that the state of Alabama has no standing in trying to stop the U.S. Census Bureau from including people in the country illegally from the numbers used for divvying up congressional seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal judge should dismiss a lawsuit from Alabama and Republican U.S. Rep. Morris \u201cMo\u201d Brooks seeking the exclusion of people in the country illegally from the apportionment numbers, attorneys for President Joe Biden\u2019s administration said in court papers Wednesday. At the very least, the judge should put the court case on hold until the Census Bureau releases apportionment figures by the end of April that will show whether Alabama keeps seven congressional seats or drops to six, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe possibility that Alabama might receive only six House seats is, by definition, contingent and speculative,\u201d Biden administration attorneys said. \u201cAfter all, Alabama might well retain seven House seats regardless of whether undocumented immigrants are included in the apportionment base.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot has happened since Alabama first filed the lawsuit in 2018 in a preemptive move to save the state from losing a congressional seat during the process in which the House of Representatives\u2019 435 voting seats are divided up among the states based on a population count conducted during the once-a-decade census.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Trump issued a memorandum that aligned his administration\u2019s position with Alabama\u2019s efforts to exclude people in the country illegally from the apportionment count<\/a>. After the memorandum was challenged in multiple lawsuits, the Supreme Court ruled it was premature to decide on its legality because it wasn\u2019t yet clear how many people would be excluded and whether the division of House seats would be affected. Finally, on his first day in office last month, Biden rescinded Trump\u2019s memorandum, as well as a Trump order directing the Census Bureau<\/a> to produce citizenship data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all that\u2019s going on, the judge in the Alabama case wanted an update this week on how to proceed from all sides, including several states and civil rights groups that are fighting Alabama\u2019s efforts and say any harm to the Cotton State is too speculative at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Alabama case is the last one pending over whether people in the U.S. illegally can be excluded from the apportionment count. <\/p>\n\n\n\t