No Need To Know

If you saw an ant in your house this morning, would you think you had an "ant problem"?  You would probably think that perhaps it got into the house when you had a door open or maybe it was on your work boots when you came in from the yard.  Now if you found ten ants, you might think it's time to call a pest control specialist to check out the situation.

But what if that exterminator came to your house, asked you how many ants you thought you saw and when you guessed "about ten" he told you "That's no problem, I'm sure its not many more than that" and tried to leave.  Wouldn't you ask him to check out the whole house--to try to get a real grasp on the problem--rather than just work off your best estimate of how bad you think it is?  The same would be true if he immediately told you to evacuate the house, started setting up one of those huge fogging tents, and started pumping chemicals into your house after you told him you saw a couple of ants.

So why then wouldn't we want to know exactly how many illegal immigrants are living in the United States?  Why would we continue to operate on the "estimated" number of undocumented workers or childhood arrivals we actually have here?  I'm not comparing those in the country illegally to pests that need to be "exterminated"--but we certainly should have an expectation as a country to know the extent of their presence.

And yet, states are already lining up to sue the Federal Government if a citizenship question is asked on the 2020 Census.  Their claim is that illegals will be "too afraid" to fill out the form--even though it is required by law--and that their states will be "undercounted".  That's a big deal, as the Census determines Congressional representation along with Federal funding levels.  But you could certainly argue that non-citizens aren't allowed to vote for those representatives--and are not eligible for many Federal benefits, so what difference would that make?

The point is that we really have no idea how many people are in the country illegally.  Private groups have put estimates at anywhere between seven and eleven million.  While running for President, Donald Trump claimed the number was 30-million.  How do you address an issue if those trying to make the ultimate decision don't know what the facts are?  If it's only "a couple million" will we just shrug and think "that's not so bad" and not do anything?  If it turns out there are 30-million illegal immigrants in the country, will that lead to knee-jerk reactions demanding deportations?

Given that those states opposed to the citizenship question will find friendly judges throughout the Federal Court system, this issue will be tied up for years and the issue will likely not be on the Census form.  So all of us can just lie awake at night wondering "how many ants are there in the house?"