JILL COLVIN and KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Tuesday that seeks to bar people in the U.S. illegally from being counted in congressional reapportionment, a move that drew immediate criticism from Democratic officials.
The Supreme Court blocked the administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census form, with a majority saying the administration’s rationale for the citizenship question — to help enforce voting rights — appeared to be contrived.
Trump said in the memorandum that he had determined that “respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President’s discretion under the law.”
The presidential memorandum is expected to draw legal challenges.
The Census Bureau said last month that more than 90 million households had already responded to the 2020 Census with the majority doing it online. People can still respond on their own online, over the phone or by mail — all without having to meet a census taker. Only this week, door-knockers started heading out to households in six areas whose residents hadn’t yet answered the questionnaire.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
