The Trump administration is testing a citizenship question as part of early preparations for the 2030 U.S. Census, aiming to reconsider how undocumented immigrants are counted for representation and federal funding purposes.
The field test is taking place in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, using questions from the American Community Survey. One question asks whether a respondent is a U.S. citizen — something that has not appeared on the main census form in roughly 75 years.
The United States 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.
During his first term, Donald Trump attempted to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but the effort was blocked by the Supreme Court of the United States. Executive orders seeking to exclude undocumented immigrants from apportionment counts were later rescinded by Joe Biden.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee criticized the new test, arguing the census is meant to count all people living in the United States and warning that a citizenship question could reduce representation and federal resources for some communities.
Meanwhile, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau, seeking to exclude undocumented immigrants from apportionment counts and to force a recount of the 2020 census. The case challenges the current interpretation of who must be counted for congressional representation.
