The Trump administration is including a citizenship question as part of its test survey as it prepares for the 2030 U.S. Census.
The goal is to eliminate the practice of counting undocumented immigrants in the census, which is used to determine the apportionment of Electoral College votes, congressional representation, and trillions in federal funds.
The field test being conducted in Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina, is using questions from the American Community Survey, the comprehensive survey of American life, rather than questions from recent census forms.
Among the questions on the ACS is one that asks, "Is this person a citizen of the United States?"
Questions for the census aren't supposed to ask about citizenship, and they haven't for 75 years.
The Constitution's 14th Amendment says "the whole number of persons in each state" should be counted. The Census Bureau has interpreted that to mean anybody living in the U.S., regardless of legal status.
The field test gives the statistical agency the chance to learn how to better tally populations that were undercounted during the last census in 2020 and improve methods that will be used in 2030.
Among the new methods being tested is the use of U.S. Postal Service workers to conduct tasks previously done by census workers.
The test originally was to take place in six places, but the Trump administration this week announced that it had eliminated four sites: Colorado Springs, Colorado, western North Carolina, western Texas, and tribal lands in Arizona.
In his first term, President Donald Trump tried to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census form, but his efforts were blocked by the Supreme Court.
He also signed orders that would have excluded people who are in the U.S. illegally from the apportionment figures and mandated the collection of citizenship data.
The executive orders were rescinded by former President Joe Biden before the census was released.
"The census is meant to count all people living in the United States, not just citizens," Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said on Bluesky on Thursday.
"President Trump's threat to add a citizenship question to the census would deny communities of representation and critical resources," Democrats added. "We must strongly oppose these efforts."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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