Republicans in Congress are trying to reshape election maps by excluding noncitizens

A growing number of Republican lawmakers are making a renewed push for an unprecedented change to the country's election maps.

Their proposals call for excluding millions of non-U.S. citizens from the census results that determine each state's share of House seats and Electoral College votes.

In the current Congress, GOP lawmakers have filed at least a dozen measures related to using the next once-a-decade head count to tally how many noncitizens are living in the country, and then subtracting some or all of those U.S. residents from what are known as the congressional apportionment counts.

The 14th Amendment says those counts must include the "whole number of persons in each state."

Still, the Republican-controlled House is on track to hold a floor vote as early as next week on a bill that calls for leaving out "individuals who are not citizens of the United States."

Another proposal would change the Constitution to require citizens-only apportionment counts, though it has been stuck in the House Judiciary Committee for more than a year.

While these measures face long odds in this divided Congress — and would have to overcome constitutional questions and practical challenges — they are reviving a decades-long campaign to remake the population numbers that form the foundation of U.S. democracy.

This latest effort in Congress also comes as Republicans are making immigration a key campaign issue this year and using pointed rhetoric against the rare and illegal practice of noncitizens voting in federal elections. That focus was amplified by a press conference last month with former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. The previous administration tried and failed to alter the apportionment