President Donald Trump said he instructed the Department of Commerce to “immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS.”
He said this will be “based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” and claimed that “People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.”
The president’s request contradicts the U.S. census schedule mandated by the Constitution. Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution requires that a census be conducted every 10 years in order to appoint the number of seats in the House of Representatives to each state by population.
The census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. It was last conducted in 2020. A mid-decade census would be unprecedented and have a host of legal challenges.
The census additionally counts all people living in the United States regardless of legal status. This includes U.S. citizens, non-citizen legal residents, non-citizen long-term visitors, and undocumented immigrants.
Noncitizens have never been excluded from the census.
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The 2020 census was overseen by the first Trump administration. Several Republican-led states, including Florida and Texas, gained congressional representation following it. A census is scheduled to be conducted again in 2030.
The president’s wish comes as Texas Republicans are looking, at Trump’s request, to vote on a new congressional map that would favor the GOP even more than the current map does.
