The Trump administration announced a significant revision to the 2030 census process on Wednesday, aiming to exclude immigrants residing illegally in the United States from the population counts used for political representation. Additionally, the proposal suggests not inquiring about race and ethnicity from every American.
According to a proposed rule available online, the Census Bureau plans to redefine “usual residence,” the criterion traditionally used to determine where individuals are counted, to exclude undocumented immigrants from the population totals that allocate seats in the House of Representatives among states.
This proposal also intends to exclude certain immigrants legally in the U.S. but lacking lawful permanent resident status, broadening the scope beyond previous attempts by President Donald Trump to remove undocumented immigrants from the census count.
Another major proposal in the filing is to eliminate questions about race and ethnicity from the short-form census and other population enumeration questionnaires. The proposal also seeks to remove questions regarding sexual orientation.
If these changes are approved and enacted for 2030, they could have significant political ramifications. Census data determines the distribution of the 435 seats in the House among states and serves as a foundation for redrawing congressional districts. Data on race and ethnicity collected through the census is also critical for providing states with population data for redistricting and enforcing the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights laws.
Although Trump will not be in office for the 2030 census, preparations for this constitutionally mandated decennial process are already underway.
Additionally, the census count influences the allocation of federal funds to each state.
The proposal signifies a fundamental shift in determining who constitutes a state’s population. The 14th Amendment mandates that House seats be apportioned by “counting the whole number of persons in each State,” not just citizens. For over two centuries, the census has typically used a person’s residence to determine this count, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.
The bureau’s new proposal argues that undocumented immigrants should not be considered usual residents “due to their lack of a sufficient tie and allegiance” to the United States.
The bureau plans to count lawful permanent residents while excluding undocumented immigrants and individuals with “less durable and indefinite” legal status than a green card. This could potentially exclude some legally residing in the U.S., depending on how the bureau ultimately defines qualifying immigration statuses.
The bureau is still evaluating how to make these determinations, potentially using government records from agencies such as the Departments of Homeland Security, Treasury, and State.
This proposal represents a new strategy in the ongoing debate that began during Trump’s first term when planning the 2020 census. The administration attempted to exclude undocumented immigrants from the numbers used to assign House seats among states.
This effort led to several legal challenges and eventually failed after President Joe Biden’s early administration halted Trump’s efforts to exclude every person in America from being counted. The 2020 census release was delayed into Biden’s term due to pandemic-related issues.
Throughout Trump’s first and second terms, his administration exerted an unusual level of control over the census.
The Census Bureau director, appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2019, resigned at the start of Biden’s term following criticism from Democratic lawmakers and a watchdog report alleging he pressured employees to quickly exclude unauthorized immigrants from the count.
In August 2025, Trump announced plans for a new census, declaring that “people who are in our country illegally will NOT BE COUNTED,” although this initiative was not pursued.
New York Attorney General Letitia James criticized the proposed change on Wednesday morning, stating, “The Constitution is clear. Every person living in the United States, regardless of immigration status, must be counted in the census. We stopped the Trump administration’s census attacks in 2020, and we’re exploring our legal options to fight back again.”
The bureau also refers to recent court rulings on race and the Trump administration’s broader stance against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as part of its rationale. It suggests that demographic information could be obtained from administrative records and remains open to asking these questions in other surveys.
The Census Bureau has traditionally collected data on Americans’ race and ethnicity in its decennial count. However, it has not historically gathered information on sexual orientation, though the 2020 census did inquire about individuals living with “same-sex” partners.
The proposal states, “The Census Bureau also is considering the (potentially) sensitive nature of questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Substantial doubts about the meaning, significance, and impact of attempting to categorize persons by race and ethnicity, in particular, have featured prominently in our national discourse and have been reflected in shifts in the law.”
