The 76-member Alabama House Republican Caucus on Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution by State Rep. Wes Allen (R – Troy) that urges the U.S. Supreme Court to allow questions pertaining to citizenship status to be included on the upcoming 2020 census.

“The census taking place in 2020 will help determine important issues like the number of seats each state will hold in the U.S. House of Representatives and the amount of population-based federal funding that will be awarded,” Allen said. “While Alabama has taken a hard stance against illegal immigration, liberal states like California, New York, and Massachusetts have thrown open their borders to those who break our laws with their simple presence. In essence, they stand to benefit by thumbing their noses at long-standing federal immigration law.

“Questions regarding citizenship have been included in the U.S. Census as far back as 1820, and Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom are among the counties that routinely ask them,”

Allen continued. “Including questions about citizenship on the census should be commonsense, not controversial.”

Allen said that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of Department of Commerce v. New York and resolve the argument over citizenship inquiries as they relate to the federal census.

He noted that failure to ascertain the citizenship status of residents would artificially inflate the populations of states and metro areas with large numbers of illegal immigrants, especially in areas that have declared themselves to be a “sanctuary” city or state. As a result, a census that does not probe citizenship status would naturally skew the apportioning of U.S. House seats and the awarding of federal dollars toward areas that harbor illegal immigrants.

The Alabama House Republican Caucus holds a 76 – 28 supermajority in the House of Representatives, and its resolutions represent the overwhelming and prevailing opinion of the legislative body. A copy of Allen’s resolution will be sent to the U.S. Supreme Court prior to oral arguments in the Department of Commerce v. New York case.