Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway is taking legal action against the U.S. Census Bureau, arguing that the federal government’s decision to count illegal aliens in census data has unfairly shifted political power and federal funding away from law-abiding Americans.
Hanaway discussed the lawsuit during an interview on The Todd Starnes Radio Show, warning that the practice has distorted congressional representation, compromised elections, and diverted billions in taxpayer dollars to states with large illegal populations. Click here to listen to Todd’s interview with the attorney general.
“By most estimates, it’s about 15 million people and it is making a tremendous difference in terms of which states get congressional seats and which states gets electoral seats,” Hanaway said. “If we are successful in our lawsuit, we believe that we’ll shift 11 congressional seats and electoral votes from coastal states to the Midwest and South.”
According to Hannaway, the Census Bureau’s actions directly contradict the Constitution’s intent and reward states that openly flout immigration law.
“Well, they’re counting illegals,” she said. “And so they started doing this under Jimmy Carter. During President Trump’s first term, he said, we’re not going to do that anymore. And then Joe Biden came in and reversed that right away, which is why we’re suing now so that we can have a court order and make it permanent so that the next liberal president can’t reverse this trend.”
Hanaway said the lawsuit seeks to correct past damage and prevent future abuse.
ENDORSED BY TRUMP: Click to read “Twilight’s Last Gleaming: Can America Be Saved”
“So we want to take the illegals out of the 2020 census,” she explained. “We actually want to go back and do the reapportionment during this decade and then prohibit it going forward from 2030 and on.”
States such as California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland are among those benefitting from the current system, she said, while states like Missouri and Ohio are losing rightful representation.
“It’s about 11 seats,” Hanaway said. “And then it’ll go to states like, you know, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, states that really should gain seats.”
The impact extends far beyond Congress. Hanaway warned that counting illegal aliens also inflates federal funding formulas.
“There are more than 350 programs that are apportioned by the census on a per capita basis and if you count illegals, it boosts your number,” she said. “The city of Los Angeles alone, we believe, has 2 million illegals being counted and so they’re drawing down many more federal dollars.”
She added that the money touches nearly every corner of government spending.
“It’s everything from daycare to Medicaid to every social program you can think of,” Hanaway said. “And so I want the states and America’s citizens to get their fair share. That’s what this lawsuit is.”
Hanaway also raised concerns about fraud tied to inflated census numbers, pointing to federal health care spending irregularities.
“I don’t think it’s humanly possible legally,” she said. “A lot of these home health care programs…are just riddled with fraud everywhere around the country.”
Despite Missouri’s tougher immigration policies, Hanaway said her office remains vigilant.
“We have a Medicaid fraud unit that works all the time in rooting it out,” she said. “But this is a special push.”
Host Todd Starnes praised the lawsuit, calling it “nothing more than theft from the American people,” and applauded Hanaway as “a fighter” at a time when election integrity and representation remain at the center of the national debate.
