Missouri's Republican attorney general filed a federal lawsuit Friday demanding a new U.S. census count that does not include illegal aliens and temporary residents, echoing a theme long championed by President Donald Trump.
The 96-page complaint was filed by Attorney General Catherine Hanaway in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri against the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau.
It argues that the federal government's policy of counting illegal aliens and temporary visa holders in the decennial census and apportionment base is unconstitutional and unlawful.
The complaint asserts that the framers of the Constitution and the 14th Amendment did not intend for noncitizens without lawful status to be counted for representation.
Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution calls for an "actual Enumeration" every 10 years, and Section 2 of the 14th Amendment provides that House seats are apportioned among the states based on the "whole number of persons in each State."
"United States citizens and lawful permanent residents have a right to representation, unlike illegal aliens and temporary visa holders," Hanaway said in a statement.
"In America, the People, the members of the social compact, are the only legitimate source of the government's power."
The lawsuit claims that before the 1980 census, the Carter administration "unilaterally decided" to include illegal aliens and temporary visa holders in congressional apportionment counts — an assertion the filing characterizes as contrary to the original understanding of the Constitution and the 14th Amendment.
Hanaway's office said the policy has shifted political power and federal dollars away from states with smaller populations of unauthorized immigrants.
The complaint alleges that states that "have continuously undermined federal immigration
law" such as California, New York, and Illinois have gained seats in the House and additional Electoral College votes at the expense of states like Missouri.
The suit also notes that more than 350 federal programs rely on census figures to allocate funding and contends that including illegal aliens and temporary residents in population counts "robs Missouri, its localities, its citizens, and its legal residents of federal funding and private funding that they would otherwise receive."
In addition to seeking a prohibition on including illegal aliens and temporary visa holders in the 2030 census, the complaint asks the court to order a recount of the 2020 census and to revise the 2021 apportionment figures to exclude those populations.
Trump also sought to exclude illegal aliens from the apportionment count for the 2020 census, issuing a memorandum in 2020 directing the Commerce Department to remove them from the population base used to divide congressional seats.
The move was challenged in court by several states, and the Supreme Court ultimately left the issue unresolved, finding the case was not yet ripe for review.
Newsmax reached out to the White House and Census Bureau for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.