Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday he supports the GOP-led effort to conduct an immediate census that would add a citizenship question to ensure only U.S. citizens are counted when revised congressional districts are drawn.
DeSantis appeared with President Donald Trump as the duo toured a newly renovated detention center for illegal aliens affectionately known as "Alligator Alcatraz." The state is in the midst of converting the 17,000-acre Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport just west of Miami into a massive holding facility.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene R-Ga., plans to introduce legislation labelled "Make American Elections Great Again" that would force the U.S. Census Bureau to immediately conduct a new census. A redistricting of U.S. House seats would then be initiated using only the population of U.S. citizens. DeSantis said that he welcomes a redo of Florida.
"I would love for them to redo the census for '26. My Legislature will redistrict those lines, we'll get it to where it's fair. But as it's right now, this country is not fairly apportioned," DeSantis said. "I've got so many more millions of people in Florida that don't have representation because of that flawed census."
Republicans at the state and national level have been pushing efforts intended to stop the counting of illegal migrants when determining a state's population. If successful, Democrats stand to lose several Congressional seats, particularly in states like California and New York, which both currently are home to millions of illegal aliens. DeSantis noted that California could lose as many as five seats and said the Biden administration short-changed his state in the 2022 counting.
"We only got one seat in the last census. Are you trying to tell me that Florida only had one seat on that? We should have had at least two. Texas should have had another one. That could be the difference in the House of Representatives and the majority," DeSantis added.
Previous attempts by Republicans to add a citizenship question have stalled in Congress but with Trump's endorsement a new census may happen. "We helped elect four additional Republicans to the U.S. Congress and we probably wouldn't have the majority if that hadn't happened," DeSantis said.
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