FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE – President Donald Trump said Thursday he has directed the Department of Commerce to begin work on a new U.S. census that would exclude people living in the country illegally.
“People who are in our country illegally will not be counted in the census,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social.
The announcement marks a significant shift in the U.S. Census, which is conducted every 10 years and is used to determine congressional representation and the allocation of federal funding. The next scheduled census is in 2030.
Trump said the new count would be based on “modern day facts and figures” and incorporate information from the 2024 presidential election.
The administration has not provided details on how undocumented individuals would be excluded or whether the change would apply to apportionment totals.
Legal experts say the move is likely to face court challenges.
The U.S. Constitution requires a count of all persons residing in the country, regardless of immigration status. A similar effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2019.
Planning for the 2030 census is already underway, and conducting a full count mid-decade would pose logistical and legal hurdles.
