The Trump administration is including a citizenship question as part of a test survey as preparations begin for the 2030 U.S. Census. The stated goal is to end the practice of counting undocumented immigrants for census purposes, which affects Electoral College apportionment, congressional representation, and the distribution of trillions of dollars in federal funding.The field test is being conducted in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, Newsmax reported.
The test uses questions from the American Community Survey, rather than questions used on recent decennial census forms.
Among the questions included is one asking whether a person is a citizen of the United States. Citizenship questions have not appeared on the census questionnaire for approximately 75 years.The U.S. Census Bureau has historically interpreted the 14th Amendment’s requirement to count “the whole number of persons in each state” as including all residents, regardless of immigration status.
Officials said the test is designed to improve population counts that were underrepresented in the 2020 census and to refine methods planned for 2030.
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The test also uses United States Postal Service employees to perform duties traditionally handled by census workers, Newsmax reported.
The survey was originally planned for six locations, but the administration announced this week that four sites were dropped, including Colorado Springs, western North Carolina, western Texas, and tribal lands in Arizona.
During his first term, President Donald Trump sought to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, an effort blocked by the Supreme Court.
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Trump also signed executive orders directing the collection of citizenship data and seeking to exclude people living in the country illegally from apportionment counts.
Those orders were later rescinded by former President Joe Biden before the census results were released.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee criticized the move in a post on Thursday.
“The census is meant to count all people living in the United States, not just citizens,” the lawmakers said.
They added that including a citizenship question could reduce representation and federal resources for certain communities.
