Governor DeSantis says the U.S. is considering a new census over counting of undocumented immigrants

Governor DeSantis says the U.S. is considering a new census over counting of undocumented immigrants

FOX 13's Evan Axelbank reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - Governor Ron DeSantis insists that Florida was deprived of its rightful representation in Congress under the 2020 census conducted by the Trump administration. 

He revealed on Wednesday that the new Trump administration has talked about whether a new census should be taken. He even pointed to an analysis that said if the population was counted right now, Florida would gain two more seats in the house, in addition to the one it already gained after the 2020 count.

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What they're saying:

"Florida's population really took off from the day the census ended," DeSantis said on Wednesday during a press conference in Tampa. "Which was like the start of COVID, we boomed."

The governor said he spoke with the commerce secretary about whether the administration would consider a new census.

"I think you have to do it once every 10 years," he said. "It doesn't mean you can't do it more than every 10 years under the Constitution."

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The backstory:

Article 1, section 2 of the Constitution says, "The enumeration shall be made within three years of the first congress in 1789, and within every subsequent term of ten years." 

Any call for a mid-decade census would have to be approved in the house and then pass a filibuster in the senate, a tall order in a 52-47 chamber, especially when it can cost billions of dollars and require thousands of people to be trained.

"Legally, there is nothing stopping it from being done," said Dr. Robert Collins of Dillard University. "But, it's just never done before."

Further, DeSantis said the 2020 census itself wasn't fair, because Florida did not make an effort to count those here illegally, like California did.

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"I think it's wrong," said Desantis. "I think it's unconstitutional that they're counted in the census."

Dig deeper:

With potentially 2.5 million undocumented immigrants in California, he wonders how many seats they would lose if they weren't counted. 

But scholars point out that the 14th Amendment calls for "the whole number of persons in each state" to be counted, "excluding Indians not taxed." 

"The Congress debated whether or not to count citizens only, and the decision was made back in the 1860s that the reapportionment was to be based on the whole number of persons, regardless of their status," said Jeffrey Wice of New York Law School.

Experts also say liberal and conservative judges have found that whole persons means all persons, and that limiting a census count to citizens only could backfire on Republican states like Florida and Texas. There are large foreign-born populations in each, and while most might be here legally, they may not be full-fledged citizens.

If the current census, which was taken in 2020, remains in force in its usual ten-year increment, it will be used for three more elections.