Trump administration proposes changing US census rules
In the United States, Donald Trump’s administration has proposed changing census rules: excluding undocumented immigrants and US noncitizens without permanent resident status from the official count. The initiative also calls for adding a citizenship question to the questionnaire and removing some demographic questions, including those on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, TIME reports.
Proposals for the 2030 census
The proposals must still undergo an approval process before they can be implemented. The next US census is scheduled for 2030. It is conducted every 10 years under the US Constitution.
Census data are used to apportion seats among states in the House of Representatives, redraw electoral districts and determine the distribution of federal funding among states.
In the document, the Trump administration said that “illegal aliens,” among other people, should not be included in the count for the apportionment of representation because, in its view, they lack sufficient connection and allegiance to the United States. The proposed approach would also mean excluding immigrants who are legally in the country but do not have a green card.
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Potential consequences for states
If the changes are approved and applied during the 2030 census, they could disproportionately affect states with large populations of undocumented immigrants and noncitizens without permanent resident status.
According to the Pew Research Center, the largest numbers of unauthorized immigrants in 2023 were in California — 2.3 million, Texas — 2.1 million, Florida — 1.6 million, New York — 825,000, New Jersey — 600,000, and Illinois — 550,000. This statistical category includes not only undocumented immigrants but also some people authorized to live or work in the United States, including asylum applicants and participants in the DACA program.
TIME notes that these and other states with large numbers of such residents could lose seats in the House of Representatives and part of their federal funding if hundreds of thousands or millions of people are not counted in the census. The proposed changes are expected to be challenged in court.
Two employees of the Federation of American Scientists working in the field of federal data policy said that removing data on race and ethnicity would make it more difficult to measure health care disparities and direct prevention programs to communities bearing the greatest burden.
