President Donald Trump has directed the Commerce Department to conduct a new census that excludes illegal immigrants from its population count.
“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 Truth Social post Tuesday morning. “People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.”
The Constitution mandates a census be conducted every ten years to apportion congressional districts. Since the first census was conducted in 1790, the count has reflected each state’s total population, including noncitizens.
It’s unclear whether Trump can instruct that illegal aliens be excluded from the census without the approval of Congress, as Article I Section 2 of the Constitution empowers the legislature to determine when and how censuses are conducted.
When Trump tried to end the practice of counting illegal aliens in the census in his first term, he argued that the executive branch has discretionary power to determine who qualifies as a U.S. resident for apportionment purposes. The move faced legal challenges and was ultimately overturned by Joe Biden before it could take effect.
Because House districts are apportioned “according to [states’] respective Numbers,” high-immigration states could lose congressional seats and electoral votes if illegal immigrants are not counted in the census. If noncitizens had been left out of the 2020 census, California, Florida, and Texas would have each lost a congressional seat, and Alabama, Minnesota, and Ohio would have retained one seat each they otherwise would have lost, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
In 2018, Alabama filed a lawsuit against the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau, claiming that the state would lose a House seat and an Electoral College vote if the 2020 Census counted illegal immigrants.
“Congressional seats should be apportioned based on the population of American citizens, not illegal aliens,” former Representative Mo Brooks said at the time. “After all, this is America, not the United Nations.”
Census counts also direct how government funds are allocated among states. Changing who is counted in the U.S. census could divert federal resources for healthcare, infrastructure, and welfare programs from states with a high number of illegal immigrants.
Trump’s move comes as Republicans gear up for a fierce redistricting battle before the 2026 midterm elections, spurred by the president’s directive and the Department of Justice’s warning that Texas redraw its congressional districts because they represent unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.