Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago — Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 24 attorneys general and two governors, submitted a comment letter strongly opposing the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the 2030 census. A proposed rule by the U.S. Census Bureau would upend the upcoming 2030 census by, among other things, excluding millions of noncitizens and prohibiting questions about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Among other harms, these changes would undermine the accuracy of the census, put communities at risk of losing political representation, and threaten access to critical federal funding. 

“The Constitution requires the federal government to count every person in this country every 10 years, and the census is fundamental to our democracy,” Raoul said. “An accurate count ensures that each state receives fair representation in Congress, the proper number of Electoral College votes and its fair share of federal funding. This proposed rule change is clearly unconstitutional and would harm the accuracy of the census count. I join my colleagues in calling on the Trump administration to withdraw this unlawful proposal.”

The coalition asserts that the Trump administration’s proposal would unlawfully exclude millions of immigrants from the census count. The proposed rule would exclude many people living in the United States, including undocumented immigrants, people on temporary visas refugees, asylum seekers and even certain U.S. nationals.

Since the first census in 1790, the census has counted people at their usual residence — where they typically live and sleep. In the comment letter, Attorney General Raoul and the coalition argue that the proposed rule would jeopardize census accuracy by abandoning this longstanding standard in favor of a new test based on where people lawfully spend the greatest number of days between Jan. 3 and April 1, while also relying on tax records as evidence of residency. This change could result in people being counted in vacation homes, workplaces or other places where they do not ordinarily live, distorting state population counts and the apportionment of political representation. 

The rule would also prohibit questions about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, depriving states of critical data they rely on to shape public policy, identify disparities, evaluate government programs, enforce antidiscrimination laws and support research. The decennial census has collected demographic information, including about race, since 1790.

The coalition argues that the proposal would violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s requirement to count all persons for congressional apportionment and the Census Act, which requires the Census Bureau to report each state’s total population for determining its share of congressional seats.

Attorney General Raoul is joined in submitting the comment letter by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.