Population estimates from the Census Bureau indicate so many people are fleeing New York state that they could lose up to two congressional seats in the coming round of reapportionment.
The latest round of numbers indicates New York’s population dropped by more than any other state in the nation based on percentage and total numbers.
A net total of 126,355 people fled the Empire State between July 2019 and July 2020, marking a 0.65% percent drop.
Spectrum News reports that the drop is despite new births and an influx of immigrants, and could lead to a loss of two seats in the House of Representatives, depending on which numbers are used for reapportionment.
“New York could lose at least one House district based on the initial estimates of its April 1 population,” Spectrum explains.
“Two seats could be lost if the congressional reapportionment is based on July 1 estimates, according to Jeff Wice, a New York redistricting expert.”
New York state saw nation’s biggest population decline in last year: census https://t.co/37TUPAkEYh pic.twitter.com/92duifZNGi
— The Hill (@thehill) December 23, 2020
New York’s Population Drain
It would be easy to suggest the population drain is based on pandemic fears – New York has experienced the highest number of deaths in the country.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s own actions have contributed to that death toll.
The Democrat governor in March issued an executive order forcing nursing homes to take on patients that had tested positive for coronavirus.
The order prohibited facilities from requiring incoming patients “to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission,” and may have contributed to well over 6,600 deaths in New York.
The actual number, however, is still not known.
Just a reminder that @NYGovCuomo ordered over 6,000 Covid patients into nursing homes for 46 days, didn’t use the Javits Center or the Comfort ship that were provided by the federal government and is still lying about the total number of seniors that died from it.
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) December 22, 2020
But, as political commentator Jeff Dunetz states, “New Yorkers have been running from the states’ burdensome taxes for at least the past two decades.”
Indeed, a 2009 Wall Street Journal report shows that between 2000 and 2008 New York saw a population drop of 8 percent, noting that “taxes are driving people away.”
People are fleeing New York in droves, and now the state could lose a House seat — or two https://t.co/lnE61bNcno
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) December 27, 2020
Illegal Immigrants And The Census
Perhaps this news of possibly losing two congressional seats is why the left has been pushing so hard to make sure illegal aliens are counted in the census and that those numbers are used in determining reapportionment.
The United States Supreme Court in December dismissed a lawsuit seeking to block President Trump’s plan to exclude illegal immigrants from the census count.
The President signed the executive order in July stating illegal immigrants would no longer be counted in the population numbers for the purposes of redrawing electoral districts.
“There used to be a time when you could proudly declare, ‘I am a citizen of the United States.’ But now, the radical left is trying to erase the existence of this concept and conceal the number of illegal aliens in our country,” the President said in a statement at the time.
“This is all part of a broader left-wing effort to erode the rights of Americans citizens, and I will not stand for it,” he added.
BREAKING: Supreme Court blocks bid to stop Trump plan to exclude illegal immigrants from census, redistricting | Just The News https://t.co/etGTKCTTbw
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) December 18, 2020
The census estimates indicate a trend that leans towards being beneficial to the GOP.
“If reapportionment took place on the basis of the new estimates, Texas’s delegation to the House of Representatives would grow by three seats, Florida’s by two, and Arizona, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon would all add an additional seat,” The Hill reports.
They also add that California “would … stand to lose one seat” which “would mark the first time since statehood that it has lost a seat in a round of reapportionment.”
Spectrum analyzes that New York’s potential loss of Congressional seats would diminish “clout and influence in the federal government and national politics over the next 10 years.”
