The members of the House of Representatives are reapportioned after each Census to ensure that each Representative represents approximately an equal number of voters. Since illegal immigrants cannot vote legally, it was felt they should not be included in the Census. Liberals claim that the Founding Fathers wanted everyone counted, not just voters and refer to the 1787 Compromise where they allowed slaves to be counted as three fifths for the Census. The Continental Congress was debating the apportionment of taxes for each State which was determined by population. The Northern States wanted the slaves counted as part of the population so the Southern States would pay their fair share but the Southern States didn’t want them counted in order to reduce their taxes. They finally reached a compromise where the slaves would be counted as three fifths of a person. Indians were excluded from the count until 1860 when those living off the reservations were counted and in 1900, they began counting Indians on the reservations. The Census was also used to determine seats in the House of Representatives and the electoral college. The Census counted every resident except foreign nationals visiting or temporarily working in the United States. The fact that they did not count foreign nationals temporarily working in the United States indicated they were only counting legal residents, and not counting those who were not legally residents. Since illegal immigrants are not American citizens, they are still citizens of their home country. The 14th Amendment conferred citizenship on all residents born in the United States or naturalized. Liberals claim that nothing in the Constitution precludes counting non-citizens in the Census, however since illegal immigrants are not born here or naturalized, they are not covered by the 14th Amendment and are not counted as citizens until they become naturized citizens.