Crist, Rubio tangle over census

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Crist, Rubio tangle over census
TAMPA - The latest dustup between Gov. Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio hits an inflammatory hot-button issue for the right: counting noncitizens and illegal immigrants in the U.S. census.
Crist, who's trying to fend off a Rubio challenge in the U.S. Senate Republican primary, says they should continue to be counted, as they always have.
Census figures determine distribution of federal grants, and if all residents aren't counted, the state will be shortchanged, he argues.
Rubio took a hard line this week, saying initially that only citizens should be counted. He backtracked after a sharp reaction from some of his South Florida Hispanic supporters.
The citizens-only statement was a mistake, his campaign said - Rubio thinks citizens and legal resident non-citizens, but not illegal immigrants, should be included in the count.
His reason: The chief purpose of census figures is deciding apportionment of congressional districts, and states shouldn't get extra representation in Congress because of large illegal alien populations.
That "would dilute the voting power of every American citizen," and create an incentive for politicians to "perpetuate our broken immigration system by rewarding states with large illegal immigrant populations with a louder voice in Washington," he said in a prepared statement.
Rubio's campaign says he would have voted for legislation proposed by conservative Republican senators last fall, led by David Vitter of Louisiana, to require the census to question all those counted about citizenship and residency status.
It failed on a 60-39 party-line vote.
Opponents say asking such questions would lead to lower census participation because of immigrants' fears of immigration authorities.
They also noted it would have required rewriting and redesigning all 2010 census questionnaires, training material and software, which must be prepared two years in advance to allow for testing. The cost: About $1 billion, the Census Bureau said.
Since the first census in 1790 for the purpose of allocating Congress members, the U.S. census has never distinguished between citizens, noncitizens and others in its counts, said spokeswoman Eun Kim.
The only exception, some say, was when a slave counted as only three-fifths of a person.
"We're here to count everybody who's here, citizens, visiting students, foreign dignitaries, everybody," she said.
Kim said all census questions are the result either of laws passed by Congress or requirements of federal agencies.
It does ask about citizenship and residency status, but only on the "long form," the American Community Survey, which goes only to a small percentage of the population and is used to for demographic estimates.
Florida is one of the states expected to gain a seat in the reapportionment that will follow the 2010 census. Florida now has 25 Congressional districts.
But according to the latest estimates, not counting illegal aliens won't affect Florida's seats, said Kim Brace of Election Data Services, a consulting firm specializing in redistricting, census and political data. The firm studied the question when the Vitter amendment was being debated.
Florida has plenty of illegal immigrants, Brace noted, "but other states have more."
The big losers would be California, which stands to stay even after 2010 but would lose five seats if illegals weren't counted; and Texas, which expects to gain four, but instead would lose two if illegals weren't counted.
About a dozen other states would gain or lose a single seat.
Rubio's initial statement on the issue Wednesday said, "When it comes to political apportionment, the census should count legal American citizens only."
In South Florida, where many families have members whose citizenship and immigration status varies, that drew objections from some of his supporters.
"I'm a firm believer that ... everybody that can be counted should be counted," said state Rep. Esteban Bovo of Hialeah, a Rubio supporter. "All the funding formulas that are tied to the census.
"I'm going to make sure that when the forms get to people's homes, they're aware there is no danger, if you have undocumented status," he said.
Asked about the disagreement, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, also told reporters everyone should be counted, regardless of legal status, for reasons including national security, border security, government representation and government funding.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35267700...news-tampa_fl/

TAMPA - The latest dustup between Gov. Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio hits an inflammatory hot-button issue for the right: counting noncitizens and illegal immigrants in the U.S. census.
Crist, who's trying to fend off a Rubio challenge in the U.S. Senate Republican primary, says they should continue to be counted, as they always have.
Census figures determine distribution of federal grants, and if all residents aren't counted, the state will be shortchanged, he argues.
Rubio took a hard line this week, saying initially that only citizens should be counted. He backtracked after a sharp reaction from some of his South Florida Hispanic supporters.
The citizens-only statement was a mistake, his campaign said - Rubio thinks citizens and legal resident non-citizens, but not illegal immigrants, should be included in the count.
His reason: The chief purpose of census figures is deciding apportionment of congressional districts, and states shouldn't get extra representation in Congress because of large illegal alien populations.
That "would dilute the voting power of every American citizen," and create an incentive for politicians to "perpetuate our broken immigration system by rewarding states with large illegal immigrant populations with a louder voice in Washington," he said in a prepared statement.
Rubio's campaign says he would have voted for legislation proposed by conservative Republican senators last fall, led by David Vitter of Louisiana, to require the census to question all those counted about citizenship and residency status.
It failed on a 60-39 party-line vote.
Opponents say asking such questions would lead to lower census participation because of immigrants' fears of immigration authorities.
They also noted it would have required rewriting and redesigning all 2010 census questionnaires, training material and software, which must be prepared two years in advance to allow for testing. The cost: About $1 billion, the Census Bureau said.
Since the first census in 1790 for the purpose of allocating Congress members, the U.S. census has never distinguished between citizens, noncitizens and others in its counts, said spokeswoman Eun Kim.
The only exception, some say, was when a slave counted as only three-fifths of a person.
"We're here to count everybody who's here, citizens, visiting students, foreign dignitaries, everybody," she said.
Kim said all census questions are the result either of laws passed by Congress or requirements of federal agencies.
It does ask about citizenship and residency status, but only on the "long form," the American Community Survey, which goes only to a small percentage of the population and is used to for demographic estimates.
Florida is one of the states expected to gain a seat in the reapportionment that will follow the 2010 census. Florida now has 25 Congressional districts.
But according to the latest estimates, not counting illegal aliens won't affect Florida's seats, said Kim Brace of Election Data Services, a consulting firm specializing in redistricting, census and political data. The firm studied the question when the Vitter amendment was being debated.
Florida has plenty of illegal immigrants, Brace noted, "but other states have more."
The big losers would be California, which stands to stay even after 2010 but would lose five seats if illegals weren't counted; and Texas, which expects to gain four, but instead would lose two if illegals weren't counted.
About a dozen other states would gain or lose a single seat.
Rubio's initial statement on the issue Wednesday said, "When it comes to political apportionment, the census should count legal American citizens only."
In South Florida, where many families have members whose citizenship and immigration status varies, that drew objections from some of his supporters.
"I'm a firm believer that ... everybody that can be counted should be counted," said state Rep. Esteban Bovo of Hialeah, a Rubio supporter. "All the funding formulas that are tied to the census.
"I'm going to make sure that when the forms get to people's homes, they're aware there is no danger, if you have undocumented status," he said.
Asked about the disagreement, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, also told reporters everyone should be counted, regardless of legal status, for reasons including national security, border security, government representation and government funding.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35267700...news-tampa_fl/