Trump seeks to change how census collects data and wants to exclude
immigrants in US illegally
[August 08, 2025]
By JOSH BOAK, MIKE SCHNEIDER and JOEY CAPPELLETTI
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has instructed the Commerce
Department to change the way the U.S. Census Bureau collects data,
seeking to exclude immigrants who are in the United States illegally, he
said Thursday.
The census' data collections will be based on “modern day facts and
figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from
the Presidential Election of 2024,” the Republican president said on his
social media platform, an indication he might try to inject his politics
into a head count that determines political power and how federal
funding is distributed.
Trump stressed that as part of the changes people in “our Country
illegally” will be excluded from census counts.
Experts said it was unclear what exactly Trump was calling for, whether
it was changes to the 2030 census or a mid-decade census, and, if so,
whether it would be used for a mid-decade apportionment, which is the
process of divvying up congressional seats among the states based on the
population count.
A new census?
Any changes in the conduct of a national census, which is the biggest
non-military undertaking by the federal government, would require
alterations to the Census Act and approval from Congress, which has
oversight responsibilities, and there likely would be a fierce fight.
While the Census Act permits a mid-decade census for things like
distributing federal funding, it can't be used for apportionment or
redistricting and must be done in a year ending in 5, said Terri Ann
Lowenthal, a former congressional staffer who consults on census issues.
“He cannot unilaterally order a new census. The census is governed by
law, not to mention the Constitution,” Lowenthal said. “Logistically,
it's a half-baked idea.”
It would be almost logistically impossible to carry out a mid-decade
census in such a short period of time, New York Law School professor
Jeffrey Wice said.
“This isn’t something that you can do overnight,” said Wice, a census
and redistricting expert. “To get all the pieces put together, it would
be such a tremendous challenge, if not impossible.”
Trump's Truth Social post fits into an overall pattern in which he has
tried to reshape basic measures of how U.S. society is faring to his
liking, a process that ranges from monthly jobs figures to how
congressional districts are drawn going into the 2026 midterm elections.
But there could be legal challenges if he were to reshape the census,
which also guides the distribution of $2.8 trillion in federal funds to
the states for roads, health care and other programs.
A census citizenship question
In a 2019 decision, the Supreme Court effectively blocked Trump from
adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The 14th Amendment
says that “the whole number of persons in each state” should be counted
for the numbers used for apportionment, the process of allocating
congressional seats and Electoral College votes among the states based
on population.
The last time the census included a question about citizenship was in
1950, and the Census Bureau’s own experts had predicted that millions of
Hispanics and immigrants would go uncounted if the census asked everyone
if he or she is an American citizen.
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President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office, Aug. 6, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Changes to the census could also play into the efforts by Trump to
urge several Republican-led states, including Texas, to redraw their
congressional maps ahead of schedule in ways that would favor GOP
candidates.
Redistricting efforts
Redistricting typically occurs once every 10 years following the
census, as states adjust district boundaries based on population
changes, often gaining or losing seats in the process.
Despite Texas having redrawn its maps just a few years ago, Trump is
pressuring Republicans in the state to redistrict again, claiming
they are “entitled” to five additional Republican seats. Texas
Republicans have cited population growth as justification for
redrawing the congressional map. The state currently has 38 House
seats, 25 held by Republicans.
Trump’s team is also engaged in similar redistricting discussions in
other GOP-controlled states, including Missouri and Indiana.
Last Friday, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Erika McEntarfer, after standard revisions to the monthly jobs
report showed that employers added 258,000 fewer jobs than
previously reported in May and June. The revisions suggested that
hiring has severely weakened under Trump, undermining his claims of
an economic boom.
The White House insists that the problem was the size of the
revisions and that it wants accurate numbers. But outside experts
disagreed with that assessment.
“Trump is basically destroying the federal statistical system,” said
Margo Anderson, a professor emerita at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has written extensively on the history of
the census. “He wants numbers that support his political
accomplishments, such as he sees them.”
After the citizenship question was stopped by the Supreme Court in
2019, Trump made another effort in 2020, announcing a plan to
exclude people living in the country illegally from the
apportionment figures.
After states, cities and organizations sued, lower courts ruled the
plan was illegal. By the time the Supreme Court weighed in, Trump
had lost his reelection bid. The justices sidestepped a decision on
the legality of Trump’s plan, throwing out the case on technical
procedural grounds. The court said in an unsigned opinion that spoke
only for the six-justice conservative majority that “we express no
view on the merits of the constitutional and related statutory
claims presented. We hold only that they are not suitable for
adjudication at this time.”
The three liberal justices dissented, saying the effort to exclude
people in the country from the population for divvying up House
seats is unlawful.
“I believe this Court should say so,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote,
joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
___
AP writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.
Schneider reported from Orlando, Fla.
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