NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- President Donald Trump on Thursday called on his Commerce Department to begin work on a “new” census that would exclude undocumented migrants and reflect results of the 2024 election, a move would have wide-ranging implications for political and economic power in the US.
The census determines each state’s representation in Congress — and therefore the Electoral College that elects presidents — and also helps determine federal funding to local communities.
“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 said in a post on his social media platform Thursday. “People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.”
Trump did not specify how census-takers would use election results to count people and it was unclear if he was calling for an additional count or a revamped approach to the census scheduled for 2030.
The constitution requires an “actual enumeration” of all people in the US every 10 years. The last census was conducted just as pandemic lockdowns were beginning, complicating efforts to get an accurate count.
Trump tried to add a citizenship question to the decennial census in his first term, which critics said could have resulted in large numbers of undocumented immigrants not being counted. The Supreme Court put Trump’s plan on hold in June 2019 and the administration eventually abandoned the effort.
Trump later tried to exclude undocumented immigrants from the count after the census was conducted but before the results were released. The US Supreme Court struck down a challenge to that directive on procedural grounds, and by the time the results were delivered to President Joe Biden they included the full count. Excluding undocumented migrants might have cost states with large immigrant populations — including California, Texas, Florida and New York — seats in the House as well as votes in the Electoral College.
The 2030 census will happen a year after Trump leaves office, but planning for it has already begun. The Census Bureau released an operational plan for the next census last month that did not include mention of a citizenship question or use of election results in the count.
Shortly after Trump was inaugurated a second time, Census Director Rob Santos resigned halfway through his five-year term in the midst of planning for the 2030 census. Trump has yet to appoint a replacement, who would be subject to Senate confirmation.
The Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department, uses administrative records like utility bills and building permits to help find the households to survey.
Officials from the White House and Commerce Department did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Acting Census Director Ron Jarmin referred questions about Trump’s posting to the census public information office, which did not return calls and e-mails seeking clarification.
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