(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump plans to sign an order Tuesday barring undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 census for determining U.S. House seats, a move likely to lead to a court challenge.
Trump’s plan, described by a White House official, comes as he seeks to fire up his conservative base ahead of the November election with a policy that would limit political representation for communities with growing numbers of undocumented immigrants.
Immigration rights advocates are likely to challenge the legality of Trump’s approach. The U.S. Constitution says House districts should be based on the “whole number of persons in each state,” which courts have interpreted to mean all people regardless of immigration status. The last census counted undocumented immigrants to determine representation in the House.
Trump has also said he would impose a merit-based visa system and address hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
The Trump administration has long sought to use the census to identify the number of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and potentially curb their political influence.
The administration last year abandoned an effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census after the U.S. Supreme Court put the plan on hold.
Democrats and immigrant-rights groups argued that the question would scare Latinos and immigrants from responding to the questionnaire. The administration said it was needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act, an explanation which did not satisfy the high court.
Opponents of the question presented documents showing that Republicans close to the administration believed it would help the GOP and expand the influence of white voters.
The census count, conducted every ten years, aims to tally the nation’s population and helps decide where federal funds for schools, hospitals, roads and bridges are spent. It is also used to decide how many seats each state has in the U.S. House.
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