Trump: Illegals Won’t Be Counted in the Census

President Donald Trump posted earlier this morning to his Truth Social platform that he’s directed the Commerce Department to start working on a new Census that won’t include illegal aliens in the 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," the president said in the post.

"People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" he added.

Legal aliens who are not yet citizens are also counted as population, though it wasn’t mentioned what their status will be in terms of population count. 

This is relevant when it comes to apportionment, especially because illegal aliens tend to be concentrated in blue states. A study from the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that legal and illegal immigrants counted in the 2020 Census shifted 17 seats in the House of Representatives and electoral college votes. The biggest winner was California, which got an extra 8 House seats, while the losers are states with low-levels of immigration such as Ohio and Tennessee.  CIS estimated that 6 of the seats specifically were due to illegal aliens, and this assumes the “official” illegal alien population of 11 million - but the impact would be even more outsized if the true illegal alien population of a likely 30+ million were captured. They estimate 9 seats are shifted when you include their young children (who are U.S. citizens by birth). 

Stephen Miller estimatead the total higher at 20-30 seats from illegals alone.

Representation in Congress aside, the results of the Census determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding and grants are disbursed to the states over the next decade. 

The first Trump administration in July 2020, he issued a memorandum directing the Census Bureau to exclude undocumented immigrants from the population count used for apportioning congressional seats. The move faced legal challenges (as everything Trump does due to lawfare) and the Biden administration reversed the move as they enabled millions of illegals to enter the country.