US President Donald Trump has ordered the Commerce Department to create a new U.S. census that excludes undocumented immigrants, reviving a controversial policy from his first term.
President revives failed first-term policy amid redistricting push
In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump declared the count must reflect “modern day facts” and 2024 election data, stressing: “People who are in our Country illegally will not be counted”.
This directly challenges the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which requires counting the “whole number of persons” for congressional representation . The move comes amid aggressive immigration raids that have sunk Trump’s approval on the issue to 41%, his lowest since taking office . Courts blocked this same effort in 2020, ruling only Congress can define who counts.
The timing links to heated redistricting battles. Trump backs Texas Republicans pushing a new congressional map to gain 3-5 GOP House seats, prompting Democrats to flee the state to block the vote . “We are entitled to five more seats in Texas,” Trump asserted this week .
If undocumented immigrants are excluded, California, Florida, and Texas could each lose a House seat, while states like Minnesota would retain representation they’d otherwise lose.
Blue-state governors like California’s Gavin Newsom now threaten retaliatory gerrymandering.
The census data also guides $1.5 trillion in annual federal funding for schools, hospitals, and roads, raising stakes for communities nationwide.
Legal experts call the order “bonkers” and unconstitutional . Conducting a mid-decade census isn’t authorized, and the Constitution mandates counts only every 10 years, with the next due in 2030. Commerce Department staff face logistical nightmares: The 2020 census cost $15.6 billion and took a decade to plan.
Adding citizenship questions would yield “faulty data” and discourage Latino participation, Census Bureau researchers warn . Similar efforts failed in 2020 when the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s citizenship question as “contrived” . President Biden reversed Trump’s 2020 exclusion policy immediately upon taking office.
The ACLU and immigrant-rights groups are preparing lawsuits, citing the administration’s “pattern of reshaping basic measures” to favor Republicans . Trump recently fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief after jobs data revisions undermined his economic claims. With the census already testing 2030 operations this fall, the order injects chaos, and ensures America’s count remains a political battleground .