The Daily Fuckup

President Donald Trump said on Aug. 7, 2025, that he wanted the Commerce Department to work on a new census plan that would leave out people in the country illegally. It was not clear from the statement whether he meant a mid-decade count or the 2030 census. ([law.cornell.edu](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/13/141?utm_source=openai))

The Census Bureau’s own rules are built around where people actually live, not immigration status. The bureau says the resident population is the total number of people living in the United States, and federal law directs the secretary of commerce to report tabulations of the whole number of persons whose usual residence was in each state, without regard to immigration status. ([census.gov](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-census-apportionment-results.html?utm_source=openai))

That count is the base for House apportionment. Census materials also note that apportionment population adds certain overseas military and federal civilian employees, and their dependents, who can be assigned to a home state. Excluding undocumented immigrants would change those numbers and could affect how seats and related formulas are calculated. ([census.gov](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-census-apportionment-results.html?utm_source=openai))

No such change has been implemented. A census policy like the one Trump described would run into immediate questions about authority, timing and whether the executive branch can alter a system that federal law and Census Bureau practice already define around usual residence. ([law.cornell.edu](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/13/141?utm_source=openai))

The move also fits an old fight. Trump’s first administration tried to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but that effort was blocked in litigation and the question was not added in the form the administration wanted. ([census.gov](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-census-apportionment-results.html?utm_source=openai))