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President Donald Trump said on Aug. 7 that he has instructed the Department of Commerce to begin work on a “new and highly accurate” census, one that would exclude individuals who are in the United States illegally.
In a statement posted to Truth Social on Aug. 7, Trump said the new population count would be based on “modern day facts and figures” and would incorporate results and information gleaned from the 2024 presidential election.
“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS,” he wrote.
The announcement sets up a possible legal fight over how population data is gathered and used for federal funding and congressional representation.
Trump is making a renewed attempt to reshape the once-a-decade census—a constitutionally mandated count that’s used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives and allocate more than $1.5 trillion in federal funding.
Trump’s post did not clarify whether the effort would be tied directly to the 2030 census or carried out as a separate statistical undertaking.
The move echoes efforts during Trump’s first term to reshape census procedure. In 2019, his administration attempted to include a question about citizenship status in the 2020 census. That proposal was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in a 5–4 decision that the administration’s justification for the change was insufficient under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Trump issued a memorandum in July 2020 directing the Census Bureau to exclude illegal immigrants from the apportionment base used to determine congressional seats and Electoral College votes. The order argued that counting individuals residing in the United States illegally rewarded sanctuary policies and distorted representation.
Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union and several Democrat-led states, immediately challenged the memorandum in court, citing the 14th Amendment’s requirement that apportionment be based on the “whole number of persons in each State,” regardless of legal status.
A federal court in New York ruled against Trump’s directive, finding that illegal immigrants qualified as “persons” under the Constitution. The Supreme Court later declined to issue a definitive ruling, deeming the dispute premature.
In January 2021, days before then-President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, the Census Bureau ceased work on producing a count of illegal immigrant residents. Civil rights groups hailed the outcome as a victory for illegal immigrant communities and constitutional norms, accusing Trump of seeking to “weaponize the census.”
Since Trump’s reelection in November 2024, Republican-led efforts to reshape the census have accelerated.
Four GOP state attorneys general filed lawsuits to change census methodology, just before Trump’s second inauguration. On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order rescinding a Biden-era directive on census administration, laying the groundwork for a broader overhaul.
In Congress, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) reintroduced legislation in January that would require the decennial census to include a citizenship question and revise apportionment to be based solely on the number of U.S. citizens—not all residents.
Trump’s plan is expected to draw legal challenges, particularly over whether illegal immigrants can be excluded from population counts used for apportionment. Although the decennial census is mandated by the Constitution, the scope and methodology of supplemental population surveys remain less clearly defined in law.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the U.S. Census Bureau with a request for comment, asking whether it had received formal instructions from the Commerce Department and whether such a census is being developed.
Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
