Americans gathered on Labor Day near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. (Archive – AFP)

US President Donald Trump intends to exclude people residing in the United States without legal residence permits from the population census, a move that could lead to states with large numbers of undocumented immigrants losing their political influence and funding, according to the German News Agency.

Trump said in a post on his platform “Truth Social” on Thursday: “I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and very accurate population census.”

He added: “People who are in our country illegally will not be counted in the census.”

Trump did not provide any details about the legal framework, implementation mechanism, or timeline for this step, but his announcement comes as Republicans are pushing to redraw electoral district boundaries before the 2026 congressional elections.

It is worth noting that the comprehensive population census is conducted in the United States every ten years, with the next census scheduled for 2030.

The census results have long-term effects as they are primarily used to allocate federal funding to states, cities, and municipalities.

The results are also mainly used to allocate seats in the House of Representatives proportionally and to redraw electoral district boundaries in congressional elections.