Trump officials revive a bid to alter the U.S. census and reshape voting maps

The Trump administration is making a new push to exclude millions of U.S. residents from a key census count that the 14th Amendment says must include the "whole number of persons in each state."

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: President Trump's administration is making a new push to reshape voting maps. This time, it's a proposal for changes to the 2030 census. Expect new court battles. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports. HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: The 14th Amendment says the, quote, "whole number of persons in each state" must be included in the census numbers used to determine how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets for a decade. ADRIEL CEPEDA DERIEUX: The Constitution is pretty clear. WANG: Adriel Cepeda Derieux is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. CEPEDA DERIEUX: It doesn't mince words. It doesn't say citizens. It doesn't say green card holders. WANG: But the Trump administration is proposing what would be an unprecedented change. And those specific census numbers in 2030 leave out non-U.S. citizens without a green card. The administration says the Constitution's framers did not intend to include those noncitizens among the persons to be counted for the census. CEPEDA DERIEUX: It would fly against centuries of constitutional tradition and law in the United States. WANG: Cepeda Derieux says the ACLU is now considering suing the Trump administration, like it did when Trump officials tried and failed to make a similar change for the 2020 census, which has been used to guide trillions in federal funding and inform community planning and policymaking. Administration's proposals for the 2030 count is expected to require some kind of question about people's U.S. citizenship status, which Census Bureau research shows is likely to discourage households with noncitizens from getting counted. MEETA ANAND: And what happens then is you are going to have inaccurate data. WANG: Meeta Anand of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is also concerned about having less data. That's because the Trump administration is also proposing to no longer allow census questions about people's race and ethnicity. The administration argues there's a, quote, "reduced need" for that information. But Anand points out it's used to enforce civil rights protections. ANAND: It's what we use to determine health outcomes. It's how we are able to understand the very fabric of who we are as a society. WANG: The Trump administration is collecting public comments on its 2030 proposal. Any changes it makes could be reversed by Congress or a new presidential administration in 2029. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BIRD") TORI KELLY: (Singing) Too many anxious nights. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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