The devaluing of American citizenship

President Trump’s call for a new US census that excludes illegal immigrants has stirred up exactly the kind of debate this country needs – but not necessarily in the way he’s proposed it.

Let’s be clear: the spirit of Trump’s order is right. It’s outrageous that congressional seats and federal funding are based, in part, on populations that include people who entered this country illegally. Sanctuary states like California, New York and Illinois benefit politically and financially from shielding those who bypassed our laws, while law-abiding states are left underrepresented. The American people have every right to demand that representation reflect citizenship, not lawbreaking.

But even as I share the outrage, I can’t support the tactic. The execution is wrong – legally, constitutionally and strategically. As a conservative who believes in limited government and the rule of law, I can’t selectively apply those principles when the outcome suits my politics. That’s not conservatism. That’s opportunism.

When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they imagined a nation governed by its people – not by everyone who happened to be physically present. The 14th Amendment requires counting the “whole number of persons,” but that was written in a time before mass illegal immigration, anchor cities and weaponized border policy.

Including illegal immigrants in the census inflates power for liberal strongholds, allowing states that ignore federal immigration laws to gain disproportionate influence in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. This isn’t just unfair – it’s unsustainable. In effect, it rewards non-compliance and punishes sovereignty.

For conservatives, this is more than a numbers game. It’s a matter of preserving national integrity, legal coherence and respect for citizenship. If citizenship doesn’t define who counts, then we’ve lost the moral foundation of self-governance.

That said, our frustration doesn’t exempt us from constitutional constraints. Trump’s proposed solution – ordering a new mid-decade census – is not only legally dubious, it’s logistically unrealistic.

The US census isn’t a quick survey you can conduct by executive order. It takes years of planning, field testing, funding and coordination to execute properly. Even if Trump were to win re-election and green-light the process immediately, the legal battles alone would stall it well past 2026. Courts already blocked similar efforts in his first term. In Trump v. New York (2020), the Supreme Court dodged a definitive ruling but made it clear that any attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from apportionment would face intense judicial scrutiny.

Conservatives don’t need a shortcut – we need a constitutional strategy. That means pushing Congress to pass legislation clarifying that apportionment should be based on citizens or legal residents. It also means enforcing immigration law and ending sanctuary policies that incentivize illegal entry in the first place.

Part of the reason Democrats fight so hard to keep illegal immigrants in the count is because it serves their political interests. The more bodies in blue states – regardless of legal status – the more seats they get in Congress and the more power they hold in national politics. That’s not a secret. That’s the plan.

But conservatives can’t afford to fight this power grab with legally shaky gimmicks. We need real solutions: secure the border, stop catch-and-release, end chain migration and reform the census process the right way.

There’s also a cultural angle to this issue that rarely gets addressed: the devaluation of citizenship. We’ve reached a point where simply being in America – legally or illegally – confers nearly the same privileges as earning the right to be here. That sends a dangerous message not just to immigrants, but to American citizens themselves: that their status means less and less with each policy that blurs the line between legal and illegal.

As a black American whose ancestors earned freedom the hard way, I refuse to let citizenship become meaningless. Citizenship is sacred. It’s not a handout, it’s not a loophole, and it shouldn’t be a political bargaining chip.

Trump is right to call attention to the imbalance. A nation that fails to distinguish between citizens and illegal entrants is a nation slipping into lawlessness. But the Constitution matters. Process matters. And if we truly want to fix this broken system, we need to do it through proper channels – not through executive fiat that’s destined for the shredder in federal court.

The left will claim that wanting to exclude illegal immigrants from the census is racist or xenophobic. But this isn’t about race – it’s about rules. It’s about fairness. And it’s about a long-term strategy that respects both the law and the people it’s meant to protect.

So yes, count citizens. Count legal residents. Count people who’ve earned their place in this country. But don’t count lawbreakers – and don’t break the law to prove the point.