Bill > A4773

Introduced Session

This bill, the "Restoring the Representation of Legal Residents Act," requires the Secretary of State to adjust the census apportionment and redistricting data to remove the illegal alien population for apportionment and redistricting purposes in this State. Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution requires that a census be conducted at least every 10 years. The census has a profound influence on the union's republican institutions, as the results are used to apportion seats in the United States House of Representatives to each State and redraw congressional, state legislative, and local districts. The census figures in 2020 were based on the number of all persons living in the United States, including U.S. citizens, non U.S. citizen legal residents, non U.S. citizen long-term visitors, and illegal aliens. Due to the inclusion of illegal aliens in the federal census counts, the legal residents in congressional, state legislative, and local districts with low numbers of illegal aliens are unjustly punished in their political representation when compared to districts with high numbers of illegal aliens. This bill therefore requires the Secretary of State to adjust the census apportionment and redistricting data to remove the population of illegal aliens for Congressional, Senate, Assembly, and local apportionment and redistricting purposes in this State. Under this bill, the Secretary of State will be required to adjust the census data that is used for apportionment and redistricting purposes, to exclude the population of illegal aliens in this State. The population of this State, so adjusted, would be the basis of the Congressional districts established by the Redistricting Commission, Senate and Assembly districts established by the Apportionment Commission, county districts established by each county district commission, municipal wards established by each municipal ward commission, and school districts established by each entity responsible for the apportionment of the members of each board of education of a regional school district. The bill further provides that, as part of the methodology for the data adjustment, the secretary would develop an accurate count of the legal population residing in this State, drawing from a variety of available datasets concerning a person's legal status, citizenship status, and residency. The datasets would include, but may not be limited to: (1) United States Bureau of the Census data regarding citizenship status and legal status; (2) New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission data regarding applications for motor vehicle driver's licenses, examination permits, probationary driver's licenses, and non-driver identification cards, and each related update, renewal, or change of address, and the issuance of such licenses, permits, and cards in cases where the applicant does not provide a social security number or individual taxpayer identification number; and (3) any other data available from reliable governmental sources deemed appropriate by the secretary for this purpose. Under the bill, the data adjustment would not be required if the United States Bureau of the Census makes available a count of the number of legal residents in the State of New Jersey, excluding only the illegal alien population, which would be used as the basis for Congressional district, Senate district, Assembly district, county district, municipal ward, and school district apportionment and redistricting purposes in this State.edistricting purposes in this State.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Paul Kanitra (R)*,  Gregory Myhre (R)*,  Dawn Fantasia (R),  Erik Peterson (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee (on 09/19/2024)

Official Document