Comments of the ACLU on "Decennial Census of the Population of Americans" (Proposed Residence Criteria and Proposed Regulations for Demographic Questions)

The census has one job written into the Constitution: count every person living in the United States, so that power in Congress reflects the people who actually live in each state. For more than two centuries, that has meant counting everyone where they live, whether they are citizens or not. The Census Bureau’s proposed rule for 2030 would abandon that promise.

The rule would remove millions of people from the count that decides how many representatives each state gets. They include immigrants who have lived here for decades, own homes, pay taxes, are married to U.S. citizens, and are raising children who attend U.S. schools. The Bureau claims that these people lack an “enduring tie” to the places they live. Our comment makes clear that this claim has no basis in the Constitution, in history, or in reality.

The Constitution says to count “the whole number of persons.” The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment considered limiting representation to citizens and rejected the idea. Congress has turned down proposals to exclude noncitizens again and again over the past century. The rule also follows openly from the President’s demand that immigrants not be counted, and from his repeated attacks on immigrant communities. That raises serious concerns that it is driven by discrimination, not law.

The damage would reach well beyond who gets counted. The rule would:

Rewrite how the Bureau decides where people live, using an untested formula that could miscount farmworkers, students, retirees, and children who split time between parents.

Rely on immigration-status determinations made from administrative records that the Bureau has not explained or tested.

Deter immigrant and mixed-status families from responding at all. The Bureau’s own research warns of this effect, and it means undercounting citizens and noncitizens alike.

The rule would also ban the census from asking about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Race data have been collected since the first census in 1790, and they are the foundation for enforcing the Voting Rights Act, drawing fair districts, and fighting discrimination in housing, lending, and beyond. The Bureau admits there is no comparably adequate substitute.