President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has directed the Commerce Department to begin work on a new census, reviving efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from official population counts used for congressional apportionment.
In a social media post, Trump said the census should draw on data from the 2024 election and exclude non-citizens living in the United States. Legal experts say it’s unclear whether the Constitution permits a mid-decade census for reapportionment or if the results could be used to alter representation in Congress or the Electoral College.
This directive echoes attempts during Trump’s first term, which the Supreme Court blocked in part. A proposed 2020 citizenship question was struck down after justifications were deemed “contrived,” and further efforts to exclude undocumented residents failed amid legal challenges.
The Census Bureau has warned that asking about citizenship would degrade data quality and lead to costly, less accurate results. Research shows Latino and Asian American households could be undercounted, potentially affecting representation and federal funding allocations.
President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s earlier policy in 2021, reinstating the long-standing practice of counting all residents, regardless of legal status. Trump revoked that order on his first day back in office.
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