Four years from now, the way Americans are counted could look very different under a plan advanced by President Trump’s administration. A new Census Bureau proposal would exclude undocumented immigrants, nonpermanent residents, refugees, and asylum seekers from the once-a-decade population tally that determines House seats and helps steer hundreds of billions in federal funding, per the Washington Post. Under the plan, the 2030 Census could exclude millions of people, including some living legally in the US, whom the bureau claims lack “a sufficient tie and allegiance” to the country.
The proposal includes a citizenship question, which Trump has long pushed for, despite an earlier attempt blocked by the Supreme Court as “contrived.” It also seeks to bar questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, arguing the census should be “colorblind” and avoid “immaterial personal characteristics,” though such race and origin data has been collected since 1790.
Legal fights appear certain as the 14th Amendment calls for congressional representation based on “the whole number of persons in each state.” The political consequences of the changes would be “enormous,” Politico reports, noting that census data is used to apportion House seats and race and ethnicity data is used to ensure districts avoid political marginalization. The collected data also determines how federal money is allocated to each state. New York Attorney General Letitia James says her office is again reviewing legal options to “fight back.”