Red States Tee Up Trump to Exclude Migrants From Census Tallies

A group of GOP-run states are suing the US Department of Commerce and asking a federal court to force the next Census to exclude migrants who are in the country unlawfully.

The lawsuit, filed as President Donald Trump is poised to assume power, could tee up the next administration to potentially settle the case and achieve a policy overhaul Trump didn’t accomplish in his prior term.

The change to the Commerce Department’s “Residence Rule,” counting all residents and not just those here lawfully and with permanent status, could help Red states with low population growth potentially hang on to additional Congressional seats, bolstering Republicans’ chances of contending for control of the US House after the 2030 Census. All four plaintiff states—Louisiana, Ohio, Kansas and West Virginia—say they’re at risk of losing more national power without the change.

“By robbing the people of the Plaintiff States of their rightful share of political representation, while systematically redistributing political power to states with high numbers of illegal aliens and nonimmigrant aliens, the Residence Rule violates §2 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the constitutional principle of equal representation,” the states said in their complaint, filed Friday in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Litigation and delays in the counting process, impacted efforts to add a citizenship question to the Census in Trump’s last term, which ultimately fizzled out when Commerce Department officials handed over power to Biden. This complaint would go further.

If successful, only citizens and lawful permanent residents would be counted. Those with temporary visas, or those residing in America without government permission, would be excluded.

“In 2022, according to the Pew Research Center, 56% of the nation’s 11.7 million illegal aliens lived in just six states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois,” the states said. “Defendants’ practice of including illegal aliens in the Census has repeatedly distributed additional House seats and electoral votes to states with high numbers of illegal aliens from states with low numbers, depriving those states and their citizens of their rightful share of representation and political power.”

The states are represented by their attorney general offices, as well as the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a group that supports more restrictive immigration policy.

The case is: Louisiana v. US Dep’t of Commerce, W.D. La., No. 6:25-cv-00076, complaint filed 1/17/25.