The Trump administration once again proposed major changes to the 2030 U.S. Census that could leave out noncitizens and remove questions on race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Local organizers are racing to put a stop to it before Black, Brown, immigrant, and marginalized communities are erased from data collection entirely.
“The Census touches every piece of New Yorkers’ lives, which is why an accurate count is crucial,” said New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who previously served as the Director of NYC Census 2020, in a statement.
An accurate count in the Census is crucial to ensuring that all communities are fairly represented in Congress and local government, that funding and resources are doled out based on population, and that the country’s civil rights laws are protected.
The proposed changes are published in the Federal Register by the Census Bureau under the U.S. Department of Commerce. They include using any federal records to determine an individual’s legal status and introducing a citizenship question; eliminating questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation for a “colorblind” intake; and adding two new federal regulation codes that would change the criteria for identifying a person’s “usual residence.”
The Census’ public comment period for these rules is open until October 13, 2026.
This is by no means the first effort President Donald Trump has made to reshape the Census Bureau. In 2018, during his first term, Trump tried to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, but the Supreme Court denied it. Former Census director Rob Santos, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2022, resigned early following Trump’s second swearing-in to office. Trump then appointed George Cook as the Census Bureau’s deputy director and chief operating officer in 2025, and almost immediately began probing ways to exclude immigrants without citizenship from the intake.
“President Trump’s proposal [last] week to exclude anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident from the Census is not only deeply concerning, it is unconstitutional and undermines the democratic process,” said Menin. “Equally troubling is his proposal to remove questions of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, which provides the critical demographic data needed to enforce landmark anti-discrimination protections like the Voting Rights Act.”
Black and Brown communities nationwide are at risk
The proposals would not only impact funding and resources for everyday life, such as schools and hospitals, but also severely undermine high-quality research that documents a wide range of racial disparities, she said. This could be in health, housing, voting, economic, and environmental areas known to affect Black and Brown communities disproportionately. All tools and data legal experts have used to change laws and pursue those who violate civil rights in the U.S.
“Now that it no longer benefits them, they want to change the rules. The demographic makeup of the country is shifting. It’s more diverse,” said Anneshia Hardy, the founder and executive director of Alabama Values, which is a nonprofit grassroots civic organization in Alabama. “And those in power will do everything to hold onto power.”
The Census began collecting race and ethnicity data in 1790, counting Black people as “three-fifths” of a person to benefit white landholders who owned slaves. But the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, specifically mandated Black Americans and descendants of enslaved Africans whole personhood and birthright citizenship. Enforcement of these rights was not immediate. In 1962, in the Baker v. Carr case, a group of Black voters in Tennessee sued the state, claiming it fixed voting districts to take voting power away from minority voters during redistricting, leading to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 protections against gerrymandering. This law was eventually challenged and “gutted” in the Louisiana v. Callais case in April 2026.
“The census data is used to enforce all kinds of anti-discrimination laws. And it’s very elementary that if you cannot figure out where communities of color live, you can’t ensure that they have fair representation in government,” said Brenda Wright, special litigation and policy counsel at NAACP LDF.
Today, the Census must count “the whole number of persons in each State” regardless of immigration status. The Trump administration is attempting to argue that this kind of data collection violates privacy laws, is no longer needed or “useful,” leads to a reduced response rate, and was not created as a tool to determine funds or research, but solely to determine apportionment for congressional representation.
Meeta Anand, senior director for the Census & Data Equity at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, added that the proposed changes are not about ensuring an “accurate” count, efficiency, or protecting privacy. She explained that in June 2026, the U.S. Commerce Department banned the Census Bureau from using advanced data privacy tools needed to protect people’s identity when data is published, and is now using the privacy issue as a justification for getting rid of the race and ethnicity question. She also pointed out the Commerce Department’s policy revision this year that removed language protecting against “political interference.”
“This rule seems not fully thought out and not grounded as to the overall effects it would have on counting or trying to achieve goals of accuracy,” said Anand.
New York State and New York City’s local census efforts
The state’s Black Legislative Task Force is serious about raising awareness about the Census in their communities. They lobbied Governor Kathy Hochul to establish a statewide Census office and got $3 million for a Census Planning Commission in this year’s budget.
At the city level, Menin pushed for a local Census office by 2027 and launched a Census Taskforce in early preparation for the 2030 Census, with co-chairs that include NAACP New York State Conference President L. Joy Williams and Jeffrey Wice, director, who is a distinguished adjunct professor & senior fellow for New York Law School. This initiative is specifically to pushback against the Trump administration and any hardships that might arise in 2030.
“We have a task force that’s been assembled to begin looking at the 2030 challenges based on 2020 response rates and changes in the city’s population since 2020 and to make recommendations,” said Wice.
To add to the public comments on these rule changes, visit www.regulations.gov/
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