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The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Trump administration's bid to exclude undocumented immigrants from the total population in this year's census

Sarah Al-Arshani   

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Trump administration's bid to exclude undocumented immigrants from the total population in this year's census
Policy1 min read
  • The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on whether President Donald Trump's administration can exclude undocumented immigrants from the total population count in the 2020 census.
  • The Trump administration has said it's unfair that some states get more congressional representation due to having a larger population of undocumented immigrants.
  • The census does not ask a citizenship question and it's unclear how this would be achieved.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether President Donald Trump's administration can exclude undocumented immigrants from the total population count in the 2020 census, several outlets reported.

The Trump administration's proposal could shift political representation and federal funding away from communities across the country.

Last month, a federal appeals court in Manhattan blocked the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau from including information on the number of undocumented immigrants.

The court also blocked a July memorandum by Trump that would have allowed for undocumented immigrants to be excluded from the total population count, CNBC reported.

The Washington Post said that in 2019, the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question on the census.

According to The Post, the current battle revolved are the fact that the number of representatives allotted to each state is based on the number of residents in that state, and that historically that has always meant all people living in that state, not just citizens.

In his July memorandum, Trump argued that some states would get more representation than they "deserved" because of undocumented immigrants.

Since the census does not ask about citizenship, it's not clear how the administration plans to assess this.

"The Census Bureau is still evaluating the extent to which, as a practical matter, administrative records pertaining to immigration status can be used to identify and exclude illegal aliens from the apportionment population count," acting solicitor general Jeffrey B. Wall said in a filing to the Supreme Court, The Post reported.

Oral arguments are scheduled for November 30.

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