OUTRAGE - AT 9:15 A.M. ET:  This story is coming in under the radar, but it will grow, and can easily turn into a major campaign issue.

This is a nation of immigrants.  The great majority of immigrants are here legally, and that includes the overwhelming majority of Hispanic-Americans.

But there is a problem with illegal immigration, as we all know.  That problem is about to be compounded by rules for next year's census that, if carried to their logical conclusion, can create real fury in the United States, as The Wall Street Journal reports:

Next year’s census will determine the apportionment of House members and Electoral College votes for each state. To accomplish these vital constitutional purposes, the enumeration should count only citizens and persons who are legal, permanent residents. But it won’t.

Instead, the U.S. Census Bureau is set to count all persons physically present in the country—including large numbers who are here illegally. The result will unconstitutionally increase the number of representatives in some states and deprive some other states of their rightful political representation. Citizens of “loser” states should be outraged. Yet few are even aware of what’s going on.

In 1790, the first Census Act provided that the enumeration of that year would count “inhabitants” and “distinguish” various subgroups by age, sex, status as free persons, etc. Inhabitant was a term with a well-defined meaning that encompassed, as the Oxford English Dictionary expressed it, one who “is a bona fide member of a State, subject to all the requisitions of its laws, and entitled to all the privileges which they confer.”

COMMENT:  As the writers note, few are aware of what's going on.  But they will be, and we'll probably have talk radio to thank. 

While we have a right to be angry at any rigged census - and there will be attempts by the left to rig it - we must also approach the issue of illegal immigration in a thoughtful, sane manner.  That hasn't always been the case.  It's easy to demagogue the issue.  But this is an opportunity for our side to come up with a creative solution and show that we can solve problems, not just oppose what others do.

August 10, 2009