Meng Measure To Stop Trump From Excluding Undocumented Immigrants in Congressional Apportionment Passed By House

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House of Representatives passed a provision sponsored by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) that would block President Trump's memorandum to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in congressional apportionment.

The Congresswoman's amendment was included in the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill which passed as part of a minibus spending package. It would prohibit the use of federal funds to implement, administer, or enforce the President's memorandum.

"President Trump does not get to choose who he wants to count in reapportionment," said Meng, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science. "Each person – regardless of citizenship status – must be counted, and his desire to ban immigrants from this process violates the law. We must stop this latest effort by the President to kick immigrants to the curb, and I'm grateful that my measure to do so was included in the House-passed CJS bill. We will not allow the President to weaponize the census, and I will not stop fighting against the President's anti-immigrant fervor, and his disdain towards our hard-working immigrant communities."

Meng blasted the President's memorandumwhen it was announced last week, and immediately introduced the No Funds for Apportionment Exclusion Act to prevent it from moving forward.

On a related issue, she also criticized Senate Republicansthis week for not providing in their coronavirus relief package, a time extension for the census to be completed due to COVID-19.

The House approved the minibus spending package by a vote of 217 to 197. The legislation funds the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and science-related agencies as well as other federal agencies and initiatives under Defense, Energy and Water Development, Financial Service and General Government, Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS)-Education, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. It is the Department of Commerce that oversees the U.S. Census Bureau.

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