Overview

• President Trump ordered the Commerce Department on Aug. 7 to launch a new census excluding undocumented immigrants from apportionment counts.
• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has told Census Bureau staff that the Constitution requires counting all persons, regardless of immigration status.
• Constitutional scholars say excluding undocumented immigrants would violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s requirement to count the “whole number of persons” and expect immediate litigation.
• Government Accountability Office and Census Bureau surveys identified statistically significant undercounts and overcounts in the 2020 count, fueling calls for accuracy reforms.
• Conducting a mid-decade census is estimated to cost about $15 billion and faces major logistical complexities without new legislation.