Trump admin moves to eliminate illegal immigrants from Census count

The Trump administration has proposed a change that would eliminate all illegal immigrants from the US Census count, as well as immigrants temporarily here on a visa. The shift could reshape political representation and federal funding across states, as it would likely decrease the representation in Congress for blue states that have so-called “sanctuary” laws to protect illegal immigrants.

The Census Bureau's proposal comes about a year after President Trump directed the agency to design a Census excluding people in the country illegally, ahead of the full count planned for 2030. However, the new rules also exclude some immigrants here on temporary legal status. The change would also drop the race and ethnicity questions from the Census.

"[T]he Census Bureau also is considering the (potentially) sensitive nature of questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation,” the proposal said. “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 move fits into the administration's broader immigration enforcement push against illegal and legal immigrants. The new proposal argues that illegal immigrants should not be counted as part of the Census “due to their lack of a sufficient tie and allegiance” to America.

This isn't Trump's first attempt to alter the Census. During his first term, the president pushed to add a citizenship question, but the Supreme Court blocked the measure. The Constitution's 14th Amendment requires representation to be based on "the whole number of persons in each State.”

This comes as the Republicans are facing an uphill battle in the midterm elections this year against the Democrats. If the 2030 Census were to leave out illegal immigrants and some immigrants here on a more temporary basis, power could shift more long-term to the GOP over the subsequent elections.