US CENSUS 2020

President Trump tries again to exclude non-citizens from the US national census

After a turbulent process, the 2020 US Census still faces challenges

August 2025: On his first day of his second term in office (2025 to 2029), President Trump rescinded a President Biden Administration executive order so he could ignore the Constitution and make millions of people invisible. The Biden executive order restored the constitutional requirement that US House of Representatives seats are apportioned among the states based on a count of every person living in the United States. Trump seeks to manipulate the census and congressional apportionment by removing non-citizens from the count. The US census has counted all residents of the United States, including non-citizens, since 1790.

According to Common Cause, a non-partisan government watchdog group, the authors of the US Constitution considered early drafts of the census section that included the phrase “whole number of free citizens and inhabitants of every age, sex, and condition,” but rejected this and instead chose the more inclusive “whole number of free persons,” which did not refer to citizenship status. 

In September 2021, we published an article by Tony Favro on how President Trump’s first administration tried to politicise the 2020 US Census. Below, we publish an updated version of Tony’s piece.*

August 2025 / September 2021: The 2020 US Census was marked by challenges related to Covid-19, especially the suspension for months of traditional door-to-door canvassing. The 2020 Census was also marked by the first (2017 to 2021) Trump Administration’s efforts to politicise the Census process and the data generated. The United States federal government conducts a census of the nation’s population at the beginning of every decade. The results of a census help determine the amount of federal funds disbursed to state and local governments over ten years, and thus are critical to cities.

The US Conference of Mayors, representing more than 1,400 cities, created a task force specifically to monitor the 2020 census process.

The US Conference of Mayors, National Urban League, National League of Cities, and many other groups filed lawsuits against the first Trump Administration. Citing the Administration’s attempts to “create widespread confusion and undermine the integrity of the count the US Conference of Mayors said of the legal actions, “we must do all that we can to ensure a complete and accurate count that fully represents our cities and metro areas.”

Census data important to cities were released in August 2021, months behind schedule. They show a more racially diverse America. The data also show a movement of people from rural to urbanized areas, with especially strong population growth in about 25 metropolitan areas.

Political and financial implications

Once every ten years, the US Census Bureau sends a survey to all US households requesting demographic information. The survey can be returned by surface mail or online, and census workers personally visit households to gather information when surveys are not returned or are incomplete. Because of the pandemic, door-to-door enumeration was suspended for months and the overall number of such in-person quality checks was drastically reduced.

Population totals from the decennial Census are used for the once-in-a-decade process of redrawing voting districts for federal and state elections in the US. The election districts of Congressional representatives, for example, are based on population size, and the boundaries of the districts change once every ten years relative to changes in population determined by the decennial Census.

Moreover, hundreds of billions of dollars of federal funds are distributed each year to state and local governments based on the results of the decennial Census. An accurate Census ensures that local funding for essential services, including transport, housing, education, environment, public health, and public safety, is distributed fairly for a decade. Precise Census data are thus crucial for local governance.

Trump’s politicisation of the 2020 Census

President Donald Trump and his first administration’s efforts to undermine the 2020 decennial Census included attacks on the integrity of the Census, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and the removal of resources during the pandemic when more resources were needed.

Trump, for example, called the Census process “the craziest thing”, suggesting that it lacked integrity. The administration attempted to order the Census Bureau to ask the citizenship status of every person in a household. According to critics, the unprecedented question would lead to an undercount of noncitizens and minority residents who would be reluctant to respond to the Census survey, fearing it would subject them to Trump’s harsh immigration policies.

The US Conference of Mayors filed a lawsuit to block the inclusion of a citizenship question in a coalition with several states and the cities of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Central Falls, Rhode Island, and Providence, Rhode Island. The lawsuit was victorious in a lower court, and the decision was upheld by the Supreme Court, forcing the Trump Administration to abandon the citizenship question.

The 2017-to-2021 Trump Administration then ordered the Census Bureau to try to count the number of undocumented immigrants, an almost impossible task to perform accurately, and essentially subtract the estimated number of undocumented immigrants from the census tally for congressional apportionment. This action was also challenged in the courts by various groups. Finally, the Trump Administration ended all counting efforts by the Census after nine months instead of the scheduled 12 months, a move supported by the Supreme Court.

The Trump Administration’s actions were a blatant attempt to suppress vulnerable groups who traditionally vote for Democrats. Trump’s executive orders, changes to the data collection schedule, and uncertainty about the outcomes of litigation, as well as Trump’s unfounded criticism of the Census and difficulties posed by the pandemic, created widespread confusion about the 2020 Census.

With the inauguration in January 2021 of Joe Biden as President, the Census Bureau terminated its efforts to comply with the Trump Administration’s directives, and an executive order by President Biden revoked the Trump administration’s actions.

The Census Bureau began delivering final data in August 2021, months behind schedule.

Social and population trends

The official 2020 Census data saw rural areas generally losing population and most urban areas growing. Population increases were noted in 312 of the 384 US metro areas. Eighty-eight of the 100 largest US cities grew between 2010 and 2020.

Fifty-three US metro areas experienced population growth of 15 per cent or more, with 22 of them experiencing a ten-year growth of 20 per cent or more. These metros gained about 11 million new residents, or nearly half of the total US population growth of 22.7 million, continuing a trend of Americans moving to a limited number of metro areas. (Further reading)

Census data also show a more diverse, multiracial population. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of individuals who identify as two or more races increased by 276 per cent from 9 million to 33.8 million.

* Notes: The article by Tony Favro was originally published in 2021 and updated in August 2025. The 2025 version includes comments by Common Cause, a non-partisan government watchdog.

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