Immigrant rights groups have filed a motion to dismiss a Republican lawsuit that seeks to exclude people living in the US illegally from the 2030 census count. The groups argue the lawsuit, filed by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, would violate federal law and require a costly redo of the 2020 census, distorting representation for millions of Americans.
Represented by the ACLU Foundation, the groups contend that the lawsuit's demand to redo the 2020 apportionment process without noncitizens would “shake the foundations of our representative democracy.” The case is the latest in a series of Republican efforts to remove undocumented immigrants and other noncitizens from census figures, which determine federal funding and congressional seat allocation.
A similar lawsuit from four other Republican state attorneys general is pending in Louisiana, while GOP lawmakers in Congress have proposed legislation to the same effect. The Constitution's 14th Amendment requires counting “the whole number of persons in each state,” a standard the Census Bureau has long interpreted to include all residents regardless of legal status.
The Missouri action coincides with former President Donald Trump's pressure on Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts favouring the GOP. Last August, Trump directed the Commerce Department to begin work on a new census excluding undocumented immigrants. At a Senate hearing this week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that citizenship is not a factor in apportionment under the Constitution and said no decision had been made on the 2030 census questionnaire.
Intervenors recently succeeded in having another lawsuit against the Census Bureau dismissed. A three-judge panel in Florida threw out a challenge by Republican groups to the agency's statistical methods used in the 2020 census.
