Sen. Vitter: Illegals Cost Louisiana a House Seat

Many conservatives have noted the problems of including illegal immigrants in the 2010 census. And Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter attributes his state’s loss of a House seat to the horde of illegal immigrants living in other states, Politico reports.

“Louisiana stands to lose clout in Congress, while states that welcome illegal immigrants stand to unfairly benefit from artificially inflated population totals,” he says in a statement. Louisiana will have six seats in the U.S. House after reapportionment, down from the seven or eight it has held over the last 100 years.

“Even though we’ve been expecting this, the confirmation that Louisiana will lose a congressional seat is frustrating,” Vitter says. Louisiana’s population slide also stems from residents who left in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina and haven’t come back.