By excluding illegal immigrants, Trump puts an end to a methodology used by Democrats that allowed them to gain access to a greater number of seats in Congress
Trump's new directive, although surely full of legal challenges, puts an end to a practice that Democrats have been using for decades to increase the number of residents living in their electoral strongholds, which allows them to have greater representation in Congress.
This representation problem arises as a result of the 2020 census, in which several densely populated Republican states, such as Florida and Texas, saw how their population growth was not properly reflected, which led to them not receiving the seats they should have received in Congress.
Thanks to this problem inherited from the 2020 census, which the bureau acknowledged only two years later, states governed by Democrats were benefited in the 2022 and 2024 midterm elections.
If Trump's promise is put into practice—that is, to stop counting illegal immigrants in the census—a handful of states—mainly those politically controlled by Democrats—could see their population figures decrease ahead of the next census in 2030.
President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday morning that illegal immigrants will not be included in the next census, so he has instructed the Department of Commerce to begin working on a new census based on the 2024 presidential results.
The United States Census Bureau, which is part of the Department of Commerce, will conduct the first field test under the new methodology in 2026 and then in 2028, while the next official census in the country is scheduled for 2030.
"I've instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin working on a new and very accurate census based on current facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information obtained from the 2024 presidential elections. People who are in our country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS," Trump confirmed on social media.
Until now, as a policy of Democratic governments, the census bureau referred to immigrants living in the country without documentation as "unauthorized migrants," including them in censuses and surveys and adding them to the "total foreign-born population."
"The term 'foreign-born' is used to refer to any person who is not a U.S. citizen at birth. This includes naturalized citizens, non-naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents (immigrants), temporary migrants (such as foreign students), humanitarian migrants (such as refugees and asylees), and unauthorized migrants," says the Census Bureau.
