WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Monday that seeks to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census count for the purpose of congressional apportionment—a move that is set to trigger lengthy court battles ahead of the November election.
- The details: Titled “Excluding Illegal Aliens From the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census,” the memo appears to be aimed at limiting the political power and representation of communities with substantial undocumented populations.
- Arguments: It’s unclear if the document will survive legal scrutiny, since the Constitution requires the census to determine the “actual enumeration” of the “whole number of persons.” Furthermore, Reuters notes that longstanding Supreme Court precedent has interpreted the Constitution as requiring that House districts be based on total population. But in the memo, the White House argues that the founding document “does not specifically define which persons must be included in the apportionment base.”
- We also reported last week that the memo could be intended to chill participation of undocumented immigrants—along with family members residing in the U.S. legally.
- Swift reaction: Dale Ho, the director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement that the organization planned to sue the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the D.C.-based advocacy group Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC slammed the Trump administration for attempting to “weaponize the census for political gain.”
- Why this matters: Last year, AAJC and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) filed a 32-page complaint in federal court in Maryland challenging President Trump’s previous executive order on citizenship data. The groups argued that the use of citizen-only data to apportion congressional seats or to draw legislative districting plans would primarily harm Asian American Pacific Islander voters who live in immigrant communities.
- Context: While the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s push to add a citizenship question last year, the U.S. has been pushing ahead in its efforts to figure out the citizenship status of every adult living in the country—with several states agreeing to share driver’s license information.
This story has been updated.
