Trump Administration Perfects Census By Counting Fewer People
The Trump administration unveiled its plan to modernize the 2030 census Wednesday by protecting American democracy from the statistical influence of people who live in America. Under the proposed framework, congressional apportionment figures would exclude undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers, foreign students, temporary workers and other noncitizens without permanent residency. Officials are also considering removing questions about race and ethnicity, allowing the federal government to achieve colorblindness through the proven method of declining to look at colors.
President Donald Trump praised the breakthrough in precision arithmetic. “We’re going to count everybody who counts, and the people who don’t count will not be counted, which is how you get the most accurate number, because it’s the number we wanted,” Trump said. The Constitution directs the government to count the “whole number of persons” in each state, an outdated instruction written before the Founders could consult modern redistricting software and determine which persons produce an acceptable congressional map.
The revised totals could alter House seats, Electoral College votes, legislative districts and billions of dollars in federal funding. Roads, schools and hospitals would continue serving excluded residents, but funding formulas would behave as though those residents had agreed not to use pavement, classrooms or emergency rooms. Administration officials said this discrepancy reflects a basic principle of responsible government: Public services should be based not on how many people need them, but on how many people are politically convenient to acknowledge.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is considering another legal challenge, maintaining the extremist position that a census should count the population. Officials emphasized that no one would be erased entirely. Excluded residents would remain visible for rent, taxes, arrests, low-wage labor and consumer spending, becoming undetectable only when their existence might generate representation or public resources. The arrangement gives the government all the practical benefits of a population without the administrative burden of admitting that population exists, conclusively making fewer Americans the most accurate possible count of everyone in America.
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