Overview

• On Aug. 7, President Trump directed the Department of Commerce to start work on a mid-decade census that would omit undocumented immigrants from the population count.
• Howard Lutnick told Census Bureau staff that federal law and the 14th Amendment require the enumeration of every person in the United States regardless of legal status.
• Lutnick said an off-cycle census intended for congressional reapportionment and excluding noncitizens could not move forward without explicit authorization and funding from Congress.
• Constitutional scholars have warned that removing undocumented residents from apportionment counts would violate the Enumeration Clause and face immediate legal challenges.
• Officials estimate a mid-decade census would cost roughly $15 billion and involve substantial logistical and operational hurdles before it could be executed.