The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed a sweeping overhaul of the 2030 U.S. Census that would exclude undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers and anyone without permanent status, while eliminating certain demographic questions. Because census figures determine representation and guide resource allocation, critics said an incomplete count could dilute political representation and weaken planning for emergencies and public services.
In a Federal Register post, the U.S. Census Bureau argued that “illegal aliens (among others)” should not be included in the apportionment count because, in the agency’s view, they are not true inhabitants or people with a usual residence in the United States. The bureau also said the census should be “colorblind” and not shaped by questions about race, and it is considering removing questions related to people who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. The proposal echoes President Donald Trump’s previous effort to add a citizenship question to the 2030 census.
The decennial census has historically counted immigrants regardless of status and has not attempted a full count by citizenship status, according to Beth Jarosz, a data researcher and vice president of the Association of Public Data Users. Citizenship information may instead be collected through the Census Bureau’s periodic American Community Survey. Jarosz described the proposed changes as unprecedented and warned that undercounts or counting people in the wrong place could dilute communities’ political power.
The apportionment count determines how many seats each state receives in the U.S. House of Representatives and, in turn, its number of Electoral College votes. Census counts are also used to assign resources during public health emergencies and natural or human-made disasters. Jarosz said failing to count everyone living in an area could leave communities without the resources they need and place residents at risk.
Race-related questions have appeared on the census since 1790, and respondents have been able to identify with more than one race since 2000. By 2020, 33.8 million people in the United States identified as more than one race, according to census data. Researchers use race and ethnicity figures to examine discrimination, crime rates and wealth gaps in communities of color.
Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, said the proposal would have a major effect on the Asian American and Pacific Islander populations served by those advocacy groups. She said removing demographic information would deprive lawmakers, health care providers, public safety officials and community advocates of data used to support Americans’ health and safety. The proposal and its potential effects were detailed by the Associated Press.