by Misty Severi
The United States Census Bureau proposed new rule changes Wednesday that would exclude illegal migrants and migrants in the U.S. on a temporary lawful basis from future censuses.
The proposed rule changes seek to only count U.S. citizens and permanent residents in censuses moving forward, which could significantly alter how much political representation and federal funding each state receives, according to NBC News.
The proposed changes would also eliminate the section of the questionnaire that seeks information on race or ethnicity, which has been included since the first census in 1790. The proposal is open to public comment for 30 days.
The proposal comes after President Donald Trump directed the Commerce Department last year to conduct a new census mid-decade that does not include illegal migrants.
In Trump’s first administration, he attempted to exclude people illegally in America from being counted in the 2020 U.S. Census.
He issued a memorandum directing the Commerce Department to supply data about how to exclude illegals from the population totals.
“Affording congressional representation, and therefore formal political influence, to States on account of the presence within their borders of aliens who have not followed the steps to secure a lawful immigration status under our laws undermines those principles. Many of these aliens entered the country illegally in the first place,” the memorandum said.
“Increasing congressional representation based on the presence of aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status would also create perverse incentives encouraging violations of Federal law,” it added.
The 2020 U.S. Census result came in after Trump left office, and then-President Joe Biden rescinded the memorandum his first day in office.
Censuses are conducted every 10 years and the next official census will take place in 2030.
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Misty Severi is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “U.S. Census Worker” by U.S. Census Bureau.
