Trump administration proposes major 2030 census changes: What to know

The Trump administration proposed to change the national census to only count U.S. citizens and permanent residents and exclude immigrants living in the country illegally ahead of the 2030 census.

The Census Bureau released the proposal online Wednesday, more than a year after President Trump directed the Commerce Department , which oversees the bureau, to develop a new census that did not count those who entered the country illegally in the total.

The proposal is seeking to change its definition of a person’s “usual residence” to exclude some immigrants who are legally in the U.S. on a temporary basis, or individuals whose lawful status to be in the country is “less durable and indefinite” than a green card.

Under the 14th Amendment, seats in the House of Representatives must be apportioned by “counting the whole number of persons in each State.” The census has generally counted a person’s residence to determine its count instead of citizenship or immigration status.

The administration argued that in its best interpretation of the Constitution, the term “persons” did not include people living in the U.S. unlawfully, and it argued that immigrants living in the country unlawfully should not count because of “their lack of a sufficient tie and allegiance” to the U.S.

In a separate change, the bureau proposed to eliminate questions about race and ethnicity from the census — information that has been collected since the first census in 1790.

Race and ethnicity data are used by states during redistricting and by the federal government to help enforce measures such as the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights laws.

In the Federal Register notice , the administration defended the change, citing what it described as the potentially “sensitive nature” of the topic and its questions, and a “reduced need for or usefulness of this information” in census data.

The census, conducted every 10 years, is used to determine how the 435 seats in the House are divided among the states. The figures are also used to draw congressional and state legislative districts, and they help determine how federal funding is distributed.

Trump, who will not be president during the 2030 census, previously sought to change the 2020 census and pushed to include a citizenship status question.

The Supreme Court ruled against Trump , finding that the administration did not adequately justify adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census.