After President Donald Trump revealed that he was working towards changing an essential government project that is mandated by the US Constitution, people are beginning to worry.
The 79-year-old took to Truth Social to share with his followers this week that he had just instructed his administration to begin working to change the Census as we know it - something that has stood since its creation in 1790.
"I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern-day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024," his post read.
"People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
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What is the US Census and what is it used for?
The US Census - conducted every decade - is a count of people and households in a specific area.
The US Census has several different uses. For instance, data collected from it is used by federal and state governments to allocate money to communities, businesses can use it to help guide them on the best locations to expand to, and law enforcement uses it to calculate crime rates for different regions.
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Health officials also use Census data to calculate rates of certain diseases to keep track of any possible outbreaks.
What are people saying about Trump's Census announcement?
People are convinced that the reasoning behind why Trump has called for the move is to help sway elections in favor of the Republicans in future elections.
"It is no coincidence that President Trump wants to manipulate the census data at the same time he is pressuring Republican states to gerrymander even more," president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, John Bisognano, said in a statement.
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"This is a comprehensive campaign to flout the U.S. Constitution in order to predetermine election outcomes so he can consolidate his power and avoid accountability to the American people."
While senior director of census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Meeta Anand, added: "To me, that represents an attempt to undermine and sow doubt on existing data and to raise the specter of manipulating data going forward.
"It's all part and parcel of the same playbook of telling people not to believe what is existing already and what has been collected and tabulated and reported in accordance with scientific standards and principles, and instead to believe what is being put in front of them without evidence for the purposes of political gain."
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The latest census was carried out back in 2020 and cost the taxpayer $13.7 billion.
It calculated the US population to be 331,449,281, however, it does not specify how many people are in the country illegally.
According to the Pew Research Centre, in 2022, there were believed to be 11 million undocumented people in the US, which is down from the peak of 12.2 million in 2007.
Reacting to Trump's Truth Social post, one person wrote: "I extensively use census data in my job. I figured it was only a matter of time before he came for it. This is infuriating and sickening."
Can Trump actually change the US Census?
It would be extremely hard for Trump to implement the changes he wants to make to the Census.
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Firstly, his biggest roadblock would be getting Congress' approval as anything he does want to do would require changes to the Census Act.
On top of this, the 14th Amendment says 'the whole number of persons in each state' must be counted for the numbers used for apportionment, and the Census Bureau has defined this to mean that everybody, regardless of their immigration status, must be included in the count.
Plus, there's the issue of Trump trying to order the new Census mid-decade, which federal law would prohibit in this instance.
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Truth Social, US News, Immigration
Joe Yates