US Census proposal seeks to exclude non-green card immigrants

The White House has proposed changes to the 2030 United States Census that would exclude immigrants without green cards from the population count used to calculate state congressional seats in the House of Representatives. This proposal departs from the current practice of counting all residents regardless of migratory status.

In addition to altering apportionment criteria, the reform suggests eliminating questions regarding race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Such changes could reduce the official population counts in states with high immigrant concentrations, potentially leading to a loss of parliamentary representation and federal funding for those regions.

Legal experts note that the proposal may face judicial challenges, as the 14th Amendment requires counting the total number of persons in each state. Furthermore, researchers warn that concerns over the use of migratory status information could discourage participation, undermining the quality of the census data.