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President Donald Trump declared in a Thursday morning Truth Social post that he has directed the Commerce Department to start working on a new census, noting that illegal aliens in the U.S. will not be included in the population count.
“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” the president said in the post.
“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added.
The U.S. conducts a census every decade — the last decennial census was conducted in 2020 and another is scheduled for 2030.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS POTENTIALLY COUNTED IN US CENSUS TAKE CENTER STAGE IN REDISTRICTING BATTLE
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025 (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The decennial census is key to determining the balance of political power each state holds, because the population counts are used in apportionment, the determination of how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives.
MUSK CALLS OUT UNFAIR BLUE STATE ADVANTAGE GAINED FROM ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Close-up of human hand holding a letter from the Census Bureau regarding the 2020 Census, San Ramon, Calif., April 24, 2020. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Consequently, the count also ultimately determines how many electoral votes each state gets for presidential elections, since a state’s electoral vote count equals the number of House and Senate seats in each state.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads in part, “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.”
The U.S. Census Bureau, which falls under the Department of Commerce, indicates that “unauthorized immigrants” are counted in the resident population figures, noting on a frequently asked questions web page that “all people (citizens and noncitizens) with a usual residence in the United States are included in the resident population for the census.”
A U.S. Department of Commerce sign is displayed at the Herbert C. Hoover Federal Building on June 9, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
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During his first term in office, Trump issued an memorandum in 2020 declaring that he “determined that respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President’s discretion under the law.”
President Joe Biden issued an executive order in 2021 which revoked Trump’s memorandum, but Trump revoked Biden’s order this year.
