Trump administration appeals order blocking exclusion of undocumented immigrants from census News
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Trump administration appeals order blocking exclusion of undocumented immigrants from census

The Trump administration gave notice on Wednesday that it intends to appeal to the Supreme Court a ruling from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. In a unanimous decision last week, a three-judge panel blocked the president’s order to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census data to reapportion congressional seats.

A coalition of state and local officials led by New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the president and the Department of Commerce after he signed the memorandum in July. The lawsuit alleged that the order “to exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment base following the 2020 Census” was unlawful and unconstitutional.

In their ruling siding with the plaintiffs, the judges placed a permanent injunction on the administration from carrying out the president’s order. The opinion explained that Donald Trump’s “presidential memorandum violates the statutes governing the census and apportionment.” The opinion emphasized that so long as an individual resides in the United States, “illegal aliens qualify as ‘persons in’ a ‘State'” and must be counted in the apportionment of congressional seats.

However, the court noted that the ruling does not prohibit the Trump administration or the Department of Commerce “from continuing to study whether and how it would be feasible to calculate the number of illegal aliens in each State,” in case the decision is overturned on appeal.