Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has directed his administration to begin work on a new US Census that excludes undocumented immigrants from the national population count.
“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. It remains unclear whether the change would be targeted for the next official census in 2030 or for a separate count conducted earlier.
Constitutional and Legal Hurdles
The proposal would directly conflict with constitutional language requiring the government to count “the whole number of persons in each State.”
Typically control over the census rests with Congress, not the president.
During his first term, Trump attempted to add a citizenship question to the census, but the Supreme Court blocked the effort, citing concerns about accuracy. Research showed such a question would likely cause undercounts, particularly among Latino communities.
The Court has never issued a definitive ruling on whether undocumented immigrants can be excluded entirely from the census. In 2020, the justices declined to decide the question.
Why the US Census Matters
The census is far more than a headcount. It determines how many seats each state has in the House of Representatives and influences the number of Electoral College votes per state.
