The Trump administration is moving to exclude illegal immigrants from the U.S. census count—a decision that could significantly impact congressional representation, Electoral College votes, and the distribution of federal funds.
The debate over who should be counted in the census is reigniting, as President Donald Trump aims to overturn one of the most consequential policies of the Biden era. Central to this renewed effort is a plan to remove undocumented immigrants from the population figures used for congressional apportionment, a move Democrats argue is unconstitutional, while Republicans view it as a long-overdue correction.
Instead of attempting to reintroduce a citizenship question—which was blocked in 2020—Trump’s team plans to use administrative data from federal agencies to identify and exclude individuals unlawfully present in the country. We’re going to “clean up the census and make sure that illegal aliens are not counted,” said White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller.
Supporters of the change argue that the current system unfairly benefits blue states like California and New York by inflating their population counts with individuals who, they contend, should not be included in determining congressional representation.
Researchers estimate that if Trump’s proposed approach had been applied to the 2010 census, California would have lost three House seats, while states such as Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina would have each gained one.
House Republicans have reintroduced the Equal Representation Act after it previously stalled in the Senate. First passed by the House in May 2024 along party lines, the bill failed to advance in the Democrat-led upper chamber. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) has now revived the legislation, which seeks to ensure that only U.S. citizens are included in the population counts used for determining congressional apportionment.
“Americans deserve fair and equal representation, something that will not be possible until we eliminate the influence of noncitizens in our elections,” Edwards told RealClearInvestigations.
Before the bill can be voted on in the House, it must first pass through the Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY).Comer echoed Edwards’ concerns, telling RCI, “American citizens’ representation in Congress should not be determined by individuals who are not citizens of the United States.”
Trump previously sought to implement a similar policy in 2020, but the Supreme Court declined to issue a substantive ruling, calling the matter premature. Now, with renewed momentum and a second term in office, Trump’s team appears more prepared—and more determined—to push the issue forward.
Meanwhile, four Republican-led states—Louisiana, Kansas, Ohio, and West Virginia—have filed lawsuits against the Biden-era Commerce Department, arguing that including illegal immigrants in the census undermines fair representation for their citizens. That case is currently on hold as the Trump administration finalizes its legal and administrative strategy.
