The White House, under President Donald Trump, is exploring a plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the U.S. Census count used for congressional apportionment, according to senior advisor Stephen Miller. Announced on June 30, 2025, the initiative aims to reshape the allocation of House seats and Electoral College votes, potentially stripping states like California of multiple congressional seats. A 2020 Pew Research Center study estimated that excluding undocumented immigrants could cost California one to two seats, with Texas and Florida each losing one, while states like Ohio and Michigan might gain representation.
The proposal revives Trump’s 2020 executive order, rescinded by President Biden in 2021, which sought to omit noncitizens from apportionment counts. The U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment mandates counting all “persons” for apportionment, but supporters, including Sen. Bill Hagerty, argue that only citizens should influence electoral power. The Equal Representation Act, passed by the House in May 2024 but blocked by Senate Democrats, would mandate a citizenship question on the 2030 census to enforce this change. Critics, like Rep. Jamie Raskin, warn it could violate constitutional mandates and discourage census participation, risking undercounts.
California, with an estimated 2.1 million undocumented immigrants in 2020 per the Center for Migration Studies, faces significant losses. Democrats argue the move targets blue states, though a 2025 PNAS Nexus study found excluding undocumented immigrants from past censuses shifted no more than two seats, with minimal partisan impact. As legal challenges loom, the debate intensifies: will this policy ensure fair representation or disrupt the democratic process?
