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New Jersey may lose one of its seats in the House of Representatives if the number of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. are subtracted from the tally used for apportionment, according to a University of Virginia analysis. The Trump administration recently ordered undocumented immigrants not be counted in apportionment. A federal lawsuit is challenging the Trump memo, saying it violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which dictates apportionment is based on the “whole number of persons” living in each state. New Jersey would risk losing a House seat and an electoral vote for the fourth time in five decades if undocumented immigrants aren’t counted, according to the study. New Jersey 101.5
In other local immigration news…
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Fay Chew Matsuda, Documenter of Chinese American Immigrant History, Dies
Fay Chew Matsuda, a first-generation Chinese American who dedicated her career to preserving the heritage of immigrants from China, died July 24 at her home on Long Island’s North Shore. Matsuda was a driving force behind the Chinatown History Project, a grassroots campaign to save artifacts and record eyewitness oral histories about Chinese migration. By 1991, the History Project had turned into the Museum of Chinese in America, where she served as the executive director. “Sometimes it was literally dumpster-diving,” Matsuda said of her project to the Barnard College alumni magazine in 2013. “We were trying to recover history that was quickly being lost,” she said. The New York Times
Coronavirus Cost Bergen County $7 Million in ICE Contracts
Advocates have long criticized the several New Jersey counties that hold contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house detainees. The counties are paid per detainee they house, often boosting the counties’ budgets, but residents and some elected officials say the county is simply profiting off immigration enforcement. The movement to stop detaining immigrants gained traction, and in Bergen County, ICE released hundreds of detainees due to the threat of a coronavirus outbreak. But that massive release is leading to budget worries for the county. It’s now expecting $7 million from ICE this year, down from $14.4 million in 2019, not helping the county as it faces shortfalls in other areas due to the coronavirus. North Jersey
