Trump calls for a new census to exclude undocumented immigrants

People stand in front of a US flag on a screen in Times Square in New York on September 19, 2022. President Donald Trump announced in a social media post on August 7 that he has directed the Department of Commerce to begin work on a new US census that excludes undocumented immigrants from the population count.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a social media post on Thursday that he has directed the Department of Commerce to begin work on a new U.S. census that excludes undocumented immigrants from the population count.

“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS,” the president added.

Trump’s proposal marks a dramatic shift from longstanding census practices. The survey has historically counted all residents regardless of immigration status.

The announcement also comes amid growing pressure from the White House for Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps in a way that could strengthen the GOP going into the 2026 midterms.

It’s unclear from Trump’s post if he’s envisioning changes to the 2030 census or adding an additional count to take place before that.

The Constitution mandates a national census every ten to determine congressional representation, and the census website states it is “designed to count every resident in the United States.” The 14th Amendment requires a count of “the whole number of persons in each State.” Changes to the census could impact the balance of power in states and the House of Representatives, which are based on total population.

A new count would likely set up legal fights

Doing an early census could be politically beneficial for the president, as projections have shown that as many as a dozen House seats could shift from Democratic or politically marginal states to Republican ones next decade due to population changes.

However, Trump can’t unilaterally order a new census for the purposes of reapportionment, according to Jeffrey Wice, a professor at New York Law School who specializes in redistricting and the census.

While Congress could theoretically authorize a new census, Wice said, it would set up a major legal fight and such a count, which requires much more granular data than what the Census Bureau produces in its other surveys, would be a massive practical challenge.

Planning for the 2030 count began in 2019. Just last month the bureau released its initial plan for conducting the next count, noting that there are tests planned for 2026 and 2028 to hone the process.

“The decennial census is the second-biggest undertaking by the federal government second only to the military at war time,” Wice said.

It’s also not clear what Trump means by using results from the 2024 presidential election or basing the count on “modern day facts and figures.”

“This is just typical of Trump to throw something off the cuff that’s not been thought out, that’s not practical or logical, and included no details,” Wice said. “You cannot take a census based on presidential election results, nor can the census reflect the outcome of a political campaign.”

The Census Bureau experts, “don’t need Trump’s advice,” on using “modern-day facts and figures,” Wice said.

Trump revives first-term push

Trump previously attempted to change the 2020 Census during his first term, repeatedly saying he would continue fighting to insert a citizenship question into the survey for the first time since 1950 – something he argued was necessary to better comply with federal voting rights law – despite the Supreme Court blocking the effort.

Critics back then said adding the question would result in minorities being undercounted by scaring off even legal residents or naturalized citizens from completing the decennial questionnaire, which is also used to determine funding for an array of government programs.

Trump then retreated from his quest, instead asking government agencies to provide records that could determine a head count of citizens without polling census-takers directly.

Trump is not the first Republican to call for an updated census in recent weeks.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene recently introduced a bill which, in part, would conduct a new census, only including citizens, and then reapportion congressional seats based on the results.

And last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed he had spoken with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who oversees the census, and made the case that Florida should’ve been entitled to at least two additional seats in 2020 instead of just the one it received.

“They said they were going to redo the count in time for 2026,” DeSantis said. “Now they would have to do that relatively soon, because you need time to draw maps and you need time to get that done. But I think they should award Texas and Florida for sure at least one more seat.”

DeSantis insinuated that former Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, who led the Commerce Department during the Biden administration, was somehow responsible for her state keeping both of its seats while Florida only gained one. But Trump didn’t leave office until January 2021, so it was his administration, not Biden’s, which conducted the 2020 count.

Trump’s move to change the census is his latest action that casts doubt on nonpartisan government reports. He last week fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whom he accused, without evidence, of manipulating the monthly jobs reports for “political purposes.”

Alejandra Jaramillo, Ethan Cohen, CNN