Trump orders work on new census that will not include those in U.S. illegally

President Trump moved Thursday to get his team involved as states rush to redraw their congressional maps, saying he has ordered the government to conduct a new count of the country’s residents — but this time without illegal immigrants.

If it comes to fruition, it could shift several seats from states with large illegal immigrant populations, but it would also spark some hefty constitutional questions.

Mr. Trump announced his intentions on social media, saying he had instructed the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, to “immediately” start work on a “new and highly accurate” count.

“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he said.

A slimmed-down census count without the migrants has long been a goal of some conservatives who argue for it on the grounds of principle and politics.

They say illegal immigrants aren’t part of the broader body politic that should be counted. They fear Democrat-led states and localities end up with more seats in Congress and state legislatures when illegal immigrants are counted.

But that tests the Constitution, which calls for seats to be doled out based on a count of the “whole number of free persons.” It excluded Indians “not taxed” and included the infamous three-fifths compromise for counting enslaved Africans.

The Constitution also called for the count — and apportionment of seats based on that count — to happen “within every subsequent term of 10 years,” and left it to Congress to legislate on how.

Whether that covers a new count as Mr. Trump envisions it is likely to be tested in courts.

The Commerce Department and the Census Bureau did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

In a study published earlier this year, two demographers, John Robert Warren and Robert E. Warren, calculated that if illegal immigrants hadn’t been included in the 2020 count used for apportioning seats, it would have shifted two seats, going from Texas and California to New York and Ohio.

The shifts would have been larger a decade earlier, after the 2010 census, when California would have lost three seats, and Florida and Texas one apiece, with the gains going to Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and North Carolina.

Whether those seats would have shifted from one party to the other would have depended on other factors, such as how state lawmakers drew their maps.

The shifts also would have affected the Electoral College, though not enough to change the results of either election.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, has announced legislation to exclude illegal immigrants from the census count.

Mr. Trump, touring Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention facility last month with Gov. Ron DeSantis, said they backed the idea.

“Ron would love it. I would love it,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. DeSantis, for his part, was skeptical of the notion that little would change politically.

“We only got one seat in the last census,” he said. “Are you trying to tell me that Florida only had one seat in that? We should have had at least two. Texas should have had another one. That could be the difference in the House of Representatives, and the majority.”

Mr. Trump attempted to adjust the census during his first term, seeking to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 count. Just before the final deadline for printing the forms, the Supreme Court stepped in and shut him down.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing the key opinion, said Mr. Trump likely did have legal authority to make such a move, but in this case didn’t follow the correct rulemaking process for adding a new question.

Mr. Trump in 2020 also tried to order his Commerce Department to provide states with a census count that didn’t include illegal immigrants.

That drew an immediate legal challenge. A three-judge panel ruled Mr. Trump’s order illegal. The president appealed to the Supreme Court, which held the matter was premature and vacated the lower court ruling.

President Biden rescinded the Trump policy on taking office, setting Mr. Trump up for his do-over now.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which led the battle against Mr. Trump’s first-term census efforts, vowed to renew the legal fight and said the president won’t fare any better this time.

“In fact, the Constitution and laws couldn’t be clearer: every single person in America counts, and multiple courts — including the Supreme Court — have rejected efforts to politicize the census over citizenship,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s voting rights project.

In his Truth Social announcement Thursday, Mr. Trump said the new count he’s ordered will be “based on modern day facts and figures” and use “the results and information gained from the presidential election of 2024.”

Apportionment is the process of divvying up the House’s 435 seats among the states. They then redistrict, which is the process of drawing congressional district lines.

While that’s usually done after the decennial census, GOP-led Texas is trying to redraw its lines now to undo several districts drawn to maximize minority voters’ power.

That started the dominoes toppling, with Democrat-led states saying they’ll retaliate with their own redistricting.