The Trump administration proposed an overhaul of the U.S. census, a move that could discount millions of individuals and affect the allotment of congressional seats and federal funding.
The Census Bureau, under the Department of Commerce, posted a proposed rule that would exclude immigrants without legal permanent status from the national population survey – roughly 15 million people.
According to the Federal Register, the Census Bureau argued that “illegal aliens (among others) should not be included in the apportionment count, as they are not true inhabitants, members of the body politic, or persons with a ‘usual residence’ in the United States due to their lack of a sufficient tie and allegiance to the United States.”
“Given the historical meaning of ‘usual residence’ as tied to allegiance, durable permission from the sovereign to settle within the United States, and establishment of domicile within the United States, the Census Bureau proposed to include lawful permanent residents within the apportionment base, while excluding from the apportionment base illegal aliens and aliens whose legal status is less durable and indefinite in length than lawful permanent resident status,” the Census Bureau proposed.
Census Bureau Would Remove Demographic Questions
The Bureau also seeks to add a citizenship question to the 2030 census, citing a U.S. Supreme Court Ruling while excluding questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
The proposed rule would eliminate the counts of the country’s Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American populations, an effort that could hinder civil and voting rights enforcement.
Trump's Previous Efforts
The Census Bureau’s recent effort is similar to President Donald Trump’s previous attempt to reform the 2020 census during his first administration.
In late June 2019, the Supreme Court rejected President Trump’s attempt to impose a U.S. citizenship question on the previous decennial population survey.
President Trump responded, issuing an executive order directing the Commerce Department to obtain citizenship data through other means.
