Trump officials push to exclude undocumented immigrants from US census

The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed changes to the US census intended to exclude immigrants without legal status in addition to other groups, with potentially significant effects on the allocation of federal resources and drawing of districts in the US House of Representatives.

In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register, the Census Bureau also announced it was considering changes to the data it collects about race and ethnicity, amid the Trump administration’s push to rid the government of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Conducted decennially, the census historically counts the “whole number of persons” in the United States specified in the 14th amendment, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. The data is used by states to draw congressional maps that are crucial in determining which party controls the House.

Donald Trump and his rightwing allies have long insisted that undocumented immigrants could skew the data, and the president called last year for the 2020 census to be redone in favor of a new survey based on “results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024”.

“People who are in our country illegally will not be counted,” he wrote on Truth Social.

The new rule proposed by the Census Bureau would continue counting lawful permanent residents, while excluding undocumented immigrants “due to their lack of a sufficient tie and allegiance to the United States”. It also proposes excluding “aliens whose legal status is less durable and indefinite in length than lawful permanent resident status”.

The bureau, which is under the commerce department, notes that it is considering using “its enormously broad access to administrative records” to determine the legal status of respondents. That could include data collected by the US departments of the treasury, health and human services, defense, and homeland security, as well as the postal service, the proposal says.

The changes reprise a campaign Trump waged during his first term, when he tried unsuccessfully to add to a question about respondents’ citizenship to the 2020 survey.

The bureau determined the citizenship question would have reduced the numbers of people willing to participate, and the supreme court ultimately ruled against the effort, which was abandoned when Joe Biden took over as president in 2021.

The bureau is also reconsidering questions it asks regarding “race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation”. The rule points to the “(potentially) sensitive nature” of such inquiries and “the reduced need for or usefulness of this information”, which could conflict with the public’s obligations under federal law to respond truthfully to census questions.

“Substantial doubts about the meaning, significance, and impact of attempting to categorize persons by race and ethnicity, in particular, have featured prominently in our national discourse and have been reflected in shifts in the law,” the proposal reads.

Should the Census Bureau move forward with the changes, it will likely face legal challenges from Democrats and allied advocacy groups.

Democrats on the House oversight committee accused the president of trying to “rig” the survey, and said: “The 14th amendment is clear: the census is meant to count ALL people living in the United States. We will fight this.”