Donald Trump’s proposal to modify the national census, excluding all foreigners with temporary residence, has sparked adverse reactions among prosecutors, civil rights advocates, and migrant organizations. The Republican already tried to modify the count of residents in the country during his first term, in 2020, and the courts stopped him. This time, critics have also reacted by announcing legal measures. “The Constitution is clear. Every person living in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, must be counted in the census. We stopped the Trump Administration’s attacks on the census in 2020 and are exploring our legal options to fight back,” responded Latitia James, New York Attorney General, to the proposal.
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.https://t.co/bjlmvP4kJy
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) September 9, 2026
The United States Census Bureau published the Administration’s proposal this week, which would revolutionize the way the census has so far conducted the count of people residing in the country. The new method would count only U.S. citizens and permanent residents, leaving out all migrants who legally reside in the country but lack the green card that confirms they are permanent residents. The modification would be made for the census to be conducted in 2030, following the 10-year periodicity.
In a publication on the Federal Register website (the official government journal of the United States), it states that “illegal foreigners (among others) should not be included in the apportionment count, as they are not true inhabitants, members of the political body, nor persons with a ‘usual residence’ in the United States due to their lack of sufficient ties and loyalty to the United States.”
This change would affect the distribution of congressional and state legislative districts. Trump would benefit because areas with higher migrant populations, which tend to vote for the Democratic Party, could lose representation and federal funds.
Critics denounce that the exclusion of these people is unconstitutional. “The Constitution is clear: the census must be a ‘real’ count of the ‘total number of persons’ in the United States. Not just citizens, but all people living here. Trump’s latest attempt to erase these words from our Constitution will fail, just as his first attempts during his first term failed,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior researcher at the American Immigration Council.
The text of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution states that “representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the total number of persons in each State.” Census figures are traditionally used for an apportionment count to determine how many seats each State will have in the federal House of Representatives. That count also determines the number of votes in the electoral college.
The Trump Administration’s immigration policies have reduced the migrant population for the first time, and by June 2025, six months after returning to the White House, the number of foreigners living in the country had decreased by just over one million, to 51.9 million. Despite deportations and voluntary departures, the foreign population represents around 15% of the 342 million inhabitants. According to Pew Research data from 2023, 46% of migrants were naturalized U.S. citizens. Almost a quarter (23%) were legal permanent residents, green card holders, and another 4% were legal temporary residents authorized to stay in the United States for a limited period, usually for work or study reasons. The rest of the migrants, classified as unauthorized, represented 27% of the total immigrants in the country.
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Trump already tried to remove undocumented migrants from the census in 2025. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the organizations that has filed the most lawsuits against Trump’s immigration policies, already warned that it would go to court: “The Constitution and federal law could not be clearer: all persons in the United States count in the census. We will not hesitate to return to court to protect the representation of all communities.”
Now the proposal goes further by also excluding those residing with a temporary permit or in the process of applying for asylum.
Neither race nor sexual orientation
The proposed reform also removes the question about race, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation, which will have repercussions on the databases used to determine anti-discrimination policies and civil rights protection measures. The census “should be colorblind and should not be distorted in any way with questions about immaterial personal characteristics, such as race,” justified the Census Bureau.
Questions related to race have been in the census since 1790. Starting in 2000, the United States began allowing people to identify with more than one race. Data on race and ethnicity are essential for researchers who evaluate discrimination, crime rates, and wealth gaps in communities of color.
“The proposed regulatory change aims to deprive historically marginalized communities and States with large immigrant populations — such as New York — of their share of political power and the funds that rightfully belong to them,” says Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the pro-immigrant organization New York Immigration Coalition. “Restricting who is counted and eliminating information about race and ethnic origin constitutes an attempt to erase the power, presence, and diverse needs of our communities from future federal data used for redistricting, enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, and other anti-discrimination protections,” he emphasizes.
The Census Bureau has opened a 30-day period for comments on the proposal.
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