GOP bill would apportion House seats based solely on citizens, cutting Democratic states' representation
Rep. Andrew Clyde has introduced the Make Apportionment Great Again Act, which would allocate House seats using only citizen counts, potentially reducing seats for states with large non-citizen populations.
Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia has introduced the Make Apportionment Great Again (MAGA) Act, a proposal that would require the allocation of House seats to be calculated using only U.S. citizens rather than the total population. The change would most affect states with sizable non-citizen communities—California, New Jersey, New York and Florida—where immigrants account for roughly one-fifth of residents. A Center for Immigration Studies analysis released in 2024 estimated that immigrant presence added a net 14 seats to Democratic-leaning states while reducing Republican states by ten seats.
The bill would not trigger a new census after 2020; instead, it would use existing records for reapportionment by 2027 and would insert a citizenship status question into the 2030 census. Critics argue the measure conflicts with the 14th Amendment’s directive to count “the whole number of persons” in each state, likely prompting legal challenges. The proposal follows a resurfaced 2021 video of Representative Yvette Clarke suggesting she needed more immigrants in her Brooklyn district for redistricting purposes.
Why it matters
The bill could alter House representation by moving seats away from states with large immigrant populations, affecting national political balance.
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