1 month ago
6
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump has instructed the Commerce Department to alteration the mode the U.S. Census Bureau collects data, seeking to exclude immigrants who are successful the United States illegally, helium said Thursday.
The census' information collections volition beryllium based connected "modern time facts and figures and, importantly, utilizing the results and accusation gained from the Presidential Election of 2024," the Republican president said connected his societal media platform, an denotation helium mightiness effort to inject his authorities into a caput number that determines governmental powerfulness and however national backing is distributed.
Trump stressed that arsenic portion of the changes radical successful "our Country illegally" volition beryllium excluded from census counts.
President Donald Trump speaks successful the Oval Office, Aug. 6, 2025, successful Washington.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Experts said it was unclear what precisely Trump was calling for, whether it was changes to the 2030 census oregon a mid-decade census, and, if so, whether it would beryllium utilized for a mid-decade apportionment, which is the process of divvying up legislature seats among the states based connected the colonisation count.
Any changes successful the behaviour of a nationalist census, which is the biggest non-military undertaking by the national government, would necessitate alterations to the Census Act and support from Congress, which has oversight responsibilities, and determination apt would beryllium a fierce fight. While the Census Act permits a mid-decade census for distributing national funding, it can't beryllium utilized for apportionment and indispensable beryllium done successful a twelvemonth ending successful 5, said Terri Ann Lowenthal, a erstwhile legislature staffer who consults connected census issues.
"He cannot unilaterally bid a caller census. The census is governed by law, not to notation the Constitution," Lowenthal said. "Logistically, it's a half-baked idea."
It would beryllium astir logistically intolerable to transportation retired a mid-decade census successful specified a abbreviated play of time, New York Law School prof Jeffrey Wice said.
"This isn't thing that you tin bash overnight," said Wice, a census and redistricting expert. "To get each the pieces enactment together, it would beryllium specified a tremendous challenge, if not impossible."
Trump's Truth Social station fits into an wide signifier successful which helium has tried to reshape basal measures of however U.S. nine is faring to his liking, a process that ranges from monthly jobs figures to however legislature districts are drawn going into the 2026 midterm elections. But determination could beryllium ineligible challenges if helium were to reshape the census, which besides guides the organisation of $2.8 trillion successful national funds to the states for roads, wellness attraction and different programs.
In a 2019 decision, the Supreme Court efficaciously blocked Trump from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The 14th Amendment says that "the full fig of persons successful each state" should beryllium counted for the numbers utilized for apportionment, the process of allocating legislature seats and Electoral College votes among the states based connected population.
The past clip the census included a question astir citizenship was successful 1950, and the Census Bureau's ain experts had predicted that millions of Hispanics and immigrants would spell uncounted if the census asked everyone if helium oregon she is an American citizen.
Changes to the census could besides play into the efforts by Trump to impulse respective Republican-led states, including Texas, to redraw their legislature maps up of docket successful ways that would favour GOP candidates.
Redistricting typically occurs erstwhile each 10 years pursuing the census, arsenic states set territory boundaries based connected colonisation changes, often gaining oregon losing seats successful the process.
Despite Texas having redrawn its maps conscionable a fewer years ago, Trump is pressuring Republicans successful the authorities to redistrict again, claiming they are "entitled" to 5 further Republican seats. Texas Republicans person cited colonisation maturation arsenic justification for redrawing the legislature map. The authorities presently has 38 House seats, 25 held by Republicans.
Trump's squad is besides engaged successful akin redistricting discussions successful different GOP-controlled states, including Missouri and Indiana.
Last Friday, Trump fired the caput of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, aft modular revisions to the monthly jobs study showed that employers added 258,000 less jobs than antecedently reported successful May and June. The revisions suggested that hiring has severely weakened nether Trump, undermining his claims of an economical boom.
The White House insists that the occupation was the size of the revisions and that it wants close numbers.
After the citizenship question was stopped by the Supreme Court successful 2019, Trump made different effort successful 2020, announcing a program to exclude radical surviving successful the state illegally from the apportionment figures.
After states, cities and organizations sued, little courts ruled the program was illegal. By the clip the Supreme Court weighed in, Trump had mislaid his reelection bid. The justices sidestepped a determination connected the legality of Trump's plan, throwing retired the lawsuit connected method procedural grounds. The tribunal said successful an unsigned sentiment that spoke lone for the six-justice blimpish bulk that "we explicit nary presumption connected the merits of the law and related statutory claims presented. We clasp lone that they are not suitable for adjudication astatine this time."
The 3 wide justices dissented, saying the effort to exclude radical successful the state from the colonisation for divvying up House seats is unlawful.
"I judge this Court should accidental so," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
___
AP writer Mark Sherman successful Washington contributed to this report. Schneider reported from Orlando, Fla.
Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
