Trump Issues Memo to Stop Counting Undocumented Immigrants From 2020 Consensus

President Trump has ordered the federal government to not count undocumented immigrants when U.S. congressional voting districts are redrawn next year. The president’s memorandum would exclude millions of people when determining how many House seats each state should have based on the 2020 census.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement the measure was “designed to again inject fear and distrust into vulnerable and traditionally undercounted communities while sowing chaos with the Census.” The immigrant community has already been wary of the census and advocacy groups worry Trump’s new announcement will deepen fears of the census and further lower participation.

Trump’s memo comes a year after he was blocked by the Supreme Court from adding a citizenship question to the census. However, the administration has still been collecting information on undocumented immigrants through other means.

Excluding undocumented immigrants in redistricting goes against the traditional interpretation of the Constitution that congressional apportionment should be based on the “whole number of persons” in each state regardless of legal status. Trump’s memo will likely be challenged and decided in court.

The American Civil Liberties Union already announced its plans to challenge the memo. Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement that Trump’s “latest attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities will be found unconstitutional. We’ll see him in court, and win, again.”

Learn more about the U.S. 2020 Census and Support immigrant communities by signing petitions demanding an end to ICE’s harmful practices and abuses.

Sign this petition to demand that the Trump administration stop abusing refugees and other undocumented individuals.

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