Did you know that the US Census Bureau in its decennial head count will aim to count the illegal aliens in the total? Most Americans do not make the connection that illegal immigrants and other foreigners who are not legal permanent residents are part of the calculation for the apportionment of Congressional representatives. If the population of illegal aliens and other long-term foreign residents were inconsequential, this would not be an important issue.

The following are the reasons why illegal aliens skew the census process, creating a distorted population number that is very costly to the American taxpayer both monetarily and in Congressional representation.

A Census 101 explanation indicates that the Census is used to apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. There are 435 House seats that are divided among the states in proportion to their population, which is determined by the decennial census. States with more people get more seats in the U.S. House. Do the math and you see why counting the illegal aliens is a priority to get more representation in the House of Representatives and more money into the communities. At the end of the day, it’s always all about the money!

For instance, in the 2000 Census there were 18.5 million more persons counted than the number of U.S. citizens. When you consider that illegal aliens should not even be in the country, and other temporary residents such as foreign students and guest workers are here only temporarily, it makes no sense to distribute Congressional seats as if these foreign nationals and illegal aliens deserved representation the same as American citizens.

This also means that a state harboring more illegal aliens can gain more House seats as long as the Census Bureau finds the illegal aliens and counts them. This also means that the illegal alien population residing in the United States during a census year has the potential to alter the balance of power in Congress.

In cities with large numbers of illegal immigrants, as well as a homeless people, such as California, the stakes are high for getting it right. The federal government uses census data to help distribute hundreds of billions of dollars to cities every year. That money is the precious tax dollars that Americans pay into the system to the IRS. Census numbers also help draw the lines for Congressional districts.

With illegal aliens and other hard-to-count people using all the city services that a legal resident uses, counting them increases federal funding. Federal law prohibits the census from sharing any individual information it collects – even with police or immigration agencies.

On the basis of the current Census questionnaire, however, there is no way to determine if a foreign resident is legally or illegally in the country. For instance, these are the questions on the 2010 Questionnaire – Name, Sex, Age/birth date, Hispanic ethnicity, Race, Relationship to the person filling out the form, Other residence, for example, military or college residence, if they sometimes live at another address. It is estimated that the high foreclosure rate in recent years will also falsify the final numbers.

Besides the distortions in apportionment of representation among the states and in the number of citizens represented by each representative, the Census also causes distortions when it is used to allocate federal public assistance funds among the states because non-immigrants, including illegal aliens, are not entitled to public welfare.

Because illegal aliens should not even be in the country, and other non-immigrants such as foreign students and guest workers are here only temporarily, it makes no sense to distribute Congressional seats as if these foreign nationals deserved representation the same as American citizens.

The states with the largest illegal and resident non-immigrant populations gain influence when it comes to drafting laws that we all have to follow, as a result of the current distribution of Congressional seats. The effect of this current distorted apportionment process is that it encourages states to accommodate the presence of persons who constitute a major fiscal burden on their citizenry, like illegal aliens.

Factor in crooked organizations such as ACORN (acronym for, Association of Organizations for Reform Now) a community based advocacy group founded in 1970 which conducts large scale voter registration drives and is considered one of the “qualified” organizations to make the 2010 Census count and you know the American taxpayer is in for a rough ride.

In the course of writing this article, however, ACORN managed to hang itself when a hidden-camera video surfaced recently showing ACORN employees providing advice to undercover journalists posing as a pimp and a prostitute on how to report an alleged underage prostitution business on their tax returns. The video also shows ACORN employees in other cities counseling the pair on tax, banking and immigration issues.

No, you can’t make this stuff up! ACORN’s activities were viewed as blatantly illegal and they have since been fired from doing the Census count. Census Director Robert M. Groves has sent a letter to the National Headquarters of ACORN notifying the group that the Census Bureau is severing all ties with ACORN for all work having to do with the 2010 census. That is good news!

News releases issued by federal agencies showed that ACORN was awarded more than $53 million in taxpayer dollars. This amount is just a pittance because it does not reflect the millions more ACORN has received in federal block grant funds awarded to state and local agencies which passed them on to ACORN.

Stay tuned, however, even though ACORN has already received Federal moneys totaling many millions of dollars over the years (our money!) they have their cheerleaders in Congress, one of them being our very own Congressman, Joe Crowley, who voted recently to keep ACORN onboard as a qualified advocacy group! That is bad news! Hopefully Congressman Joe Crowley will attend our December 10th JPCA Town Meeting and explain to us, his constituents, why he still feels it’s OK to keep an organization like ACORN funded with our tax dollars. His Congressional district boundaries now extend into the Bronx and may well be populated with many illegal aliens. Remember, at the end of the day, it’s all about the money!