U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer said he’s gravely concerned the current surge of illegal immigrants being counted in the U.S. Census could have impacts even on the future of American’s congressional representation.
According to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), there were a record 302,000 encounters with migrants at the border in December, which includes 250,000 apprehensions of illegal immigrants.
Palmer (R-Hoover), who joined GOP colleagues on a trip to the southern border this week, discussed the crisis Friday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”
“[P]olitically, when these people go to California or New York, they get counted in the next Census for determining how many representatives that state will have,” Palmer argued.
“As you know New York lost a representative and California lost one. So you let 12 million people into the country illegally and they migrant to California or New York or Illinois or someplace like that, when we do they census they’ll count them for purposes of representation, and that should not be the case.”
The issue highlights a potential downfall of Republican governors sending migrants to Democrat-run sanctuary cities.
“It’s not about being able to vote, it’s being able to count them because with about every 750,000 people you get a representative in Congress,” Palmer continued. “Well what that could mean is if California picked up another 2 million people, Alabama could lose a representative because we’re not going to go over 435 representatives. So instead of me representing, say, 730,000 people, I might have to go to representing 800,000 people, and us lose a seat in Alabama and California pick up one. That’s the problem.”
Palmer believes the current problems at the border will get worse every day.
“We keep calling this a border crisis and I think this is virtually a border catastrophe,” he said. “Especially given how the cartels have infiltrated every state, every city in the country. They’re literally making $32 million a week just at the Del Rio sector.”
Palmer and other House Republicans are currently working toward impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the crisis.
“He wants to process migrants quicker,” Palmer said. ” He wants to give them free healthcare. He’s not interested in securing the border and never has been and that’s one of the reasons why he’s going to face articles of impeachment. That plus lying to Congress.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
