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Elections and Voting
The Census Exclusion

Trump Ordered Census Work Excluding Undocumented Immigrants; His Administration Proposed Excluding Some Lawful Immigrants From Apportionment

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Chapter 1 — Trump's Instruction and the Broader Proposal

Chapter 2 — Who Loses When Residents Do Not Count

Chapter 3 — The Defense, the Status, and the Charge

1 · Trump's Instruction and the Broader Proposal

1 · Trump's Instruction and the Broader Proposal — select a subtopic

1.1 — A Population Count Built on an Election

1.2 — The Proposal Went Beyond Undocumented Immigrants

1 · Trump's Instruction and the Broader Proposal
1.1 · Trump's Instruction and the Broader Proposal
A Population Count Built on an Election

On August 7, 2025, Trump announced that he had ordered work on a new census that would leave out undocumented immigrants. His administration later proposed excluding some lawful immigrants too from the 2030 count that divides House seats. The charge is an abuse of executive power: a proposal to change states' political representation by deciding that some residents no longer count.

Truth Social post, August 7, 2025, as archived by The American Presidency Project

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. People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Truth Social · August 7, 2025

Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →

Sources
[1]Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Truth Social post, Aug. 7, 2025, archived by The American Presidency Project
[2]U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census of the Population of Americans; Proposed Residence Criteria and Proposed Regulations for Demographic Questions, proposed rule, 91 Fed. Reg. (Sept. 10, 2026), FR Doc. 2026-18481
[3]Taylor R. Knoedl, Citizenship and Residence Criteria for the 2030 Census: Recent Developments, CRS Insight IN12741, Sept. 28, 2026
[4]U.S. Constitution, amend. XIV, §2, National Archives transcript
[5]2 U.S.C. §2a(a)-(b), Reapportionment of Representatives, Cornell Legal Information Institute
[6]13 U.S.C. §141(a), (d), (e)(2), Population and other census information, Cornell Legal Information Institute
1.2 · Trump's Instruction and the Broader Proposal
The Proposal Went Beyond Undocumented Immigrants

The Census Bureau proposed changing the population count used to allocate House seats in the 2030 census. Citizens and green card holders would count; other foreign citizens would not. That reaches some people living here lawfully, not just those without legal status. NPR reported that the census has never excluded residents because of their immigration status.

Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →

Sources
[2]U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census of the Population of Americans; Proposed Residence Criteria and Proposed Regulations for Demographic Questions, proposed rule, 91 Fed. Reg. (Sept. 10, 2026), FR Doc. 2026-18481
[3]Taylor R. Knoedl, Citizenship and Residence Criteria for the 2030 Census: Recent Developments, CRS Insight IN12741, Sept. 28, 2026
[7]U.S. Census Bureau, Congressional Apportionment: Frequently Asked Questions, revised Nov. 22, 2021
[8]Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, Trump officials propose sweeping changes to the census that would reshape voting maps, KPBS, Sept. 9, 2026, updated Oct. 2, 2026

2 · Who Loses When Residents Do Not Count

2 · Who Loses When Residents Do Not Count — select a subtopic

2.1 — Representation for the Whole State

2 · Who Loses When Residents Do Not Count
2.1 · Who Loses When Residents Do Not Count
Representation for the Whole State

The census divides 435 House seats among the states, and House seats help determine each state's electoral votes. The Constitution requires counting persons, including residents who cannot vote. Excluding residents would shrink their state's population in that division, and citizens there would share the loss of any seat.

Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →

Sources
[3]Taylor R. Knoedl, Citizenship and Residence Criteria for the 2030 Census: Recent Developments, CRS Insight IN12741, Sept. 28, 2026
[4]U.S. Constitution, amend. XIV, §2, National Archives transcript
[7]U.S. Census Bureau, Congressional Apportionment: Frequently Asked Questions, revised Nov. 22, 2021
[9]U.S. Constitution, art. I, §2 (Enumeration); art. I, §4 (Elections Clause); art. II, §4 (National Archives transcript)

3 · The Defense, the Status, and the Charge

3 · The Defense, the Status, and the Charge — select a subtopic

3.1 — The Case for Exclusion and Its Answer

3.2 — A Proposal, With Political Power at Stake

3 · The Defense, the Status, and the Charge
3.1 · The Defense, the Status, and the Charge
The Case for Exclusion and Its Answer

The administration argues that the Constitution itself calls for the exclusion, or alternatively that census officials have discretion to define residence by an enduring tie to the country. Census rules have excluded visitors, and the Supreme Court has upheld counting federal employees stationed overseas. But the Fourteenth Amendment counts persons, and the proposal would remove people who live here.

Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →

Sources
[2]U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census of the Population of Americans; Proposed Residence Criteria and Proposed Regulations for Demographic Questions, proposed rule, 91 Fed. Reg. (Sept. 10, 2026), FR Doc. 2026-18481
[3]Taylor R. Knoedl, Citizenship and Residence Criteria for the 2030 Census: Recent Developments, CRS Insight IN12741, Sept. 28, 2026
[4]U.S. Constitution, amend. XIV, §2, National Archives transcript
[8]Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, Trump officials propose sweeping changes to the census that would reshape voting maps, KPBS, Sept. 9, 2026, updated Oct. 2, 2026

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