Judges slap down Trump order related to count for state congressional representation

A trio of federal judges on Thursday said that President Trump's order to omit people in the U.S. illegally when redrawing congressional districts goes against the law.

The judges granted an injunction blocking the president's order. They barred Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from excluding those present in the U.S. illegally when he submits the numbers utilized to determine state congressional representation, according to the Associated Press.

“Throughout the Nation’s history, the figures used to determine the apportionment of Congress — in the language of the current statutes, the ‘total population’ and the ‘whole number of persons’ in each State — have included every person residing in the United States at the time of the census, whether citizen or non-citizen and whether living here with legal status or without,” the judges wrote, according to the news outlet.

President Trump had issued a memorandum in July which stated: "Increasing congressional representation based on the presence of aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status would also create perverse incentives encouraging violations of Federal law. States adopting policies that encourage illegal aliens to enter this country and that hobble Federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws passed by the Congress should not be rewarded with greater representation in the House of Representatives."