Trump’s census makeover may not help his party

President Donald Trump is reviving his 2020 push to exclude undocumented people from the census as his administration simultaneously prods red states to redraw their congressional maps — but some experts say the move isn’t guaranteed to help his party.

The decennial census, which determines how congressional seats are allotted, has historically counted all US residents regardless of their immigration status.

Excluding the undocumented would involve steep legal and logistical hurdles, with an unclear Republican benefit when it comes to the balance of power in Congress.

That’s because “there are significant numbers of unauthorized immigrants in red states and blue states,” Pew Research Center’s Jeffrey Passel told Semafor.

As a result, he said, blue California and New York, as well as red Florida and Texas, are among the states most likely to lose House seats from Trump’s proposed change.