Trump plans to purge millions of immigrants from the census, setting up a brutal legal fight over who actually counts in this country

The Trump administration is moving to fundamentally change who counts toward the U.S. population for congressional representation. The proposal aims to exclude millions of immigrants from the calculation used to determine House seats.

Per NBC, The proposal would count U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents while potentially leaving out undocumented immigrants. The exclusion could also potentially cover people living in the country under temporary legal status. That could reshape political representation in states with large immigrant populations.

The plan is already setting up a major constitutional fight. The 14th Amendment says representation must be apportioned using the “whole number of persons” in each state. Those opposed to the proposal argue that excluding entire categories of residents could collide directly with that requirement.

The census could become the next major immigration battlefield

The proposed changes would give the federal government a much different way of calculating the population used for congressional apportionment. Instead of simply counting people living in the country, officials would distinguish between citizens, permanent residents and other immigrants.

In a report by TheGuardian, The administration is also considering removing questions about race and ethnicity from the census questionnaire. Those questions have been part of the census for generations and are used for various government and civil rights purposes.

The consequences could be significant for states with large immigrant populations. Census figures help determine how many seats each state receives in the House, meaning a different population count can ultimately affect political power in Congress and state legislatures.

The proposal is not final, and the public will have an opportunity to comment before the administration decides whether to move forward. That leaves plenty of room for the plan to change before it reaches the next census.

But the constitutional question may prove much harder to avoid. The Supreme Court previously blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the census. The new proposal could trigger another legal battle over the government’s authority to decide who counts.