Let's Start Counting Citizens
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Let's start counting citizens
By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., wants to change one word in the U.S. Constitution.
Replacing "persons" with "citizens" in the 14th Amendment would force the Census Bureau to discount foreigners -- legals and illegals -- to ensure that every American finally would be properly represented in the House.
Michigan would gain a seat, as would Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Montana and Utah, according to Ms. Miller.
"It is almost ridiculously simple" she said.
High threshold
The only thing more ridiculous is that Miller does not think ratification of her proposed constitutional amendment will be a slam-dunk.
"The degree of difficulty is great," she said of the amendment process. Two-thirds of the House and Senate must approve any amendment, as well as three-fourths of the states.
This should be approved by acclamation in Congress and then by virtually every state. But Miller does not talk as if it will.
"It is not a partisan move," Miller said, hoping to neutralize potential objections.
It isn't, if one presumes that championing constitutional integrity is not considered partisanship in these politically correct times.
Depending on which party is in power in each of those states, Democrats and Republicans could gain extra seats, while the Left Coast, once known as California, would lose six. Texas, New York and Florida each would lose one, says Miller.
The biggest loser, of course, would be Mexico.
The illegal aliens exported by Mexico no longer would be factored in when congressional districts are drawn up.
Miller, who had been the Michigan secretary of state, knows how to read election results. That is what sparked her idea.
When she read the general election results in 2002, Miller noticed a huge discrepancy among congressional districts. Each should have generated roughly similar vote totals.
In Miller's district, 217,000 people voted. But in a congressional district in southern Mexi ... er, um, southern California, only 67,000 citizens cast ballots.
"Why, where is everybody?" she asked herself.
Ninety-eight percent of the people in her district are American citizens. But only 59 percent were in the California district.
"That is why so few votes were cast," Miller said. Because the census counts foreigners as well as Americans, 67,000 Californians have the same representation in the House as 217,000 Michiganders.
How does one say "One man, one vote" in Spanish?
"Citizens are having their votes diluted by aliens," Miller said. Representatives whose districts have high rates of aliens typically vote for so-called immigration rights, blanket amnesty and open borders.
Illegal aliens and other foreigners are swaying the votes whenever Congress acts on national security, she said.
Devouring America
As illegal foreigners continue infesting America by devouring this republic's social programs, hospital emergency rooms -- and now its very form of government -- it is only a matter of time until the representative of a district brimming with non-Americans proposes another change in the Constitution.
The 17th Amendment stipulates that "the Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State ... ."
The proposed change: " ... and the Republic of Mexico."
Dimitri Vassilaros can be reached at dvassilaros@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5637.