Op-ed: How Immigration Distorts the Redistricting Process

Interest in the midterm elections has developed even earlier than usual this cycle, due in large part to redistricting battles. Six states have already taken the unusual step of redistricting between decennial censuses, with several more states actively considering it. Their goal, of course, is to gerrymander U.S. House districts for 2026. California alone may net five extra seats for Democrats, thanks to its new district lines.

What is sometimes forgotten in the restricting debate is the role that immigration plays in distorting representation, effectively worsening the impacts of gerrymanders. Mass immigration distorts both apportionment, which is the distribution of U.S. House seats among states, and also redistricting, which is the drawing of legislative boundaries within states.

The distortion is due to the 25 million noncitizens added to the U.S. population through immigration. Noncitizens include not only illegal immigrants, but also legal permanent residents, guest workers, foreign students, etc. All of these groups show up in census data, but by law they cannot be voters in federal or state elections.

Rather than apportioning U.S. House seats by the number of eligible voters in each state, the current system apportions seats based on the total population of each state, which includes noncitizens. Since some states have far more noncitizens than average, those states get significantly more representatives per eligible voter than do states with smaller numbers of noncitizens.

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[Read the rest at the Washington Examiner]