DOJ seeks to dismiss Alabama’s lawsuit over inclusion of illegal aliens in US Census

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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is pushing back on Alabama’s lawsuit against the federal government over inclusion of illegal aliens in US Census.

The DOJ challenged the lawsuit in a motion filed Monday, arguing the case should be dismissed because the plaintiffs lack of jurisdiction.

“There simply is no case or controversy that would justify having this Court wade into the constitutional and other claims raised by Plaintiffs’ lawsuit. Accordingly… this Court should dismiss Plaintiffs’ Complaint for lack of jurisdiction,” read the motion from the DOJ.

In May, Alabama 5th District U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit against the federal government over what they said was the Census Bureaus “unlawful” decision to include of illegal immigrants in census data “used to determine the apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Electoral College.”

Marshall says the move will cause Alabama to lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representative as well as a vote in the Electoral College.

“If the U.S. Census Bureau follows through with its plan to include illegal aliens in the 2020 census for purposes of apportionment, Alabama will lose both a seat in the U.S. House of Representative and a vote in the Electoral College,” explained Marshall. “Alabama’s loss will be another state’s gain, as states with a growing illegal alien population will be the beneficiary of this reapportionment. I have joined with Congressman Mo Brooks in filing suit against the federal government to stop the inclusion of illegal aliens in the census’s apportionment population. The Constitution does not permit the dilution of our legal residents’ right to equal representation in this manner.”

Brooks echoed Marshall’s thoughts.

“Each decade, 435 Congressional seats are apportioned among the states based on population. Congressional seats should be apportioned based on the population of American citizens, not illegal aliens. After all, this is America, not the United Nations,” said Brooks.

But the DOJ contends the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate this could happen in their lawsuit.

“Plaintiffs, however, have failed to demonstrate—even at the pleading stage—that the inclusion of illegal aliens would actually result in this injury. The very purpose of the census—an event that will not even take place until
2020—is to count the number of people residing in each state,” their motion read. “…Because the census has not yet taken place, thus making their claimed injury speculative, conjectural, and hypothetical. As a fallback, Alabama alleges that it is likely to lose funding if illegal aliens are included in the census, but that claimed injury is just as speculative as its claimed loss of representation because it relies upon the same type of prediction as to what the census will yield.”

In their lawsuit, Marshall and Brooks argue the Census Bureau’s “Residence Rule” — which allows foreign nationals living in the United States to be counted in the census and allocated to the state of their “usual residence” regardless of whether they are legally present in the U.S. — violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the constitutional principal of equal representation:

But the DOJ said it believes Alabama’s suit falls outside the zone of interests protected by the Constitution’s Census Clause.

“And to the extent funding decisions are based on total population, Alabama would nonetheless receive its fair share based on its total population, including its population of illegal alien residents (many of whom use government services, such as attending schools). For those reasons alone, Alabama’s claim that it will lose federal funds if illegal aliens are included in the census is too speculative to support standing,” the motion explained.

Brooks declined to comment on the DOJ’s motion when asked by Alabama Today.

The State of Alabama’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau was filed May 21, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Click HERE to view the lawsuit.

Read the DOJ’s filing below: