Senator David Vitter (R-LA) “agreed Wednesday to modify his amendment requiring the 2010 census to ask all people their citizenship, even as he pleaded with colleagues to let him have an up-or-down vote on the issue,” the Times-Picayune reports.
Responding to the concerns of Elliott Stonecipher, a Shreveport pollster and demographic analyst who has championed the cause of adding the citizenship question to the census, Vitter agreed to drop language that would require the census short form to ask every person about their immigration status.
Stonecipher had said that a question probing into a person’s legal status might have the effect of scaring some respondents off. "I appreciate very much the senator’s choice to ask the citizenship question alone, " Stonecipher said after Vitter made the adjustment.
It is still “not certain that Vitter’s amendment, which is co-sponsored by Robert Bennett, R-Utah, will come to a vote.” It’s being offered on the 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 2847).
Meanwhile, Senator Vitter is also claiming that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) “wants illegals to be counted in the 2010 Census so that left-leaning states with high illegal immigrant populations could increase the size of their congressional delegations,” The Hill reports.
The Census is a major factor in determining the each state’s share of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.
"I think it’s pretty clear that Harry Reid and the Democratic side…wants illegals counted in the Census, wants illegals in the reapportionment of the House," Vitter said on a conservative talk radio show late yesterday.
(credit image – getty)
Congress in Your Pocket
Since when would a simple count of how many AMERICANS reside within our borders include people who snuck into our country and are living here as criminals? It obviously in not out of heartfelt care for these people but a blatant attempt to garner votes. If we can find them and count them,why can’t we also deport them?