Trump seeks to change how census collects data and wants to exclude immigrants in US illegally

President Donald Trump has instructed the Commerce Department to change the way the Census Bureau collects data, seeking to exclude people who are in the United States illegally
FILE - A briefcase of a census taker is seen as she knocks on the door of a residence, Aug. 11, 2020, in Winter Park, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

FILE - A briefcase of a census taker is seen as she knocks on the door of a residence, Aug. 11, 2020, in Winter Park, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
News Elections
By JOSH BOAK – Associated Press
Aug 7, 2025
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he has instructed the Commerce Department to change the way the Census Bureau collects data, seeking to exclude people who are in the United States illegally.

The Republican president said on his social media platform the census' data collections will be based on “modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” an indication he might try to inject his politics into survey work that measures everything from child poverty to business operations.

Trump stressed that as part of the changes people in “our Country illegally” will be excluded from census counts.

His Truth Social post fits into an overall pattern in which he has tried to reshape basic measures of how U.S. society is faring to his liking.

Last Friday, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after standard revisions to the monthly jobs report showed that employers added 258,000 fewer jobs than previously reported in May and June. The revisions suggested that hiring has severely weakened under Trump, undermining his claims of an economic boom.

The White House insists that the problem was the size of the revisions and that it wants accurate numbers.

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