Who Counts? Trump to Reform Census to Avoid Counting Noncitizens | Facts Matter

After several years of record-breaking illegal immigration, the second Trump administration is looking to make a significant change to the way the U.S. Census is conducted. Specifically, it is seeking to end the practice of including illegal aliens when counting a state’s official population.

Last month, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said that the Trump administration was determined “to clean up the census and make sure that illegal aliens are not counted.”

Mr. Miller didn’t mention it in that speech, but the ramifications of making this kind of change would be dramatic. This is because the census count is used to apportion the number of House seats that each state gets, to determine the number of votes that each state has in the electoral college, and to decide where trillions of dollars in government funds should flow. This means that the question of whether or not illegal aliens are counted could determine who controls the U.S. House of Representatives after 2030.

Let’s go through the details of the Trump administration’s plan together.