#Judges block Trump memo that would bar undocumented immigrants from census

A three-judge panel in Manhattan federal court voted to block President Trump’s memo that would bar undocumented immigrants from being counted in the nationwide census, according to court papers filed Thursday.

The decision blocks implementation of the memo Trump signed in July titled, “Excluding Illegal Aliens From the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census,” which directed the Commerce Secretary to give Trump information about undocumented immigrants so they could be exempt from the count.

In the ruling Thursday, the judges wrote the memo is a “violation of Congress’s delegation of its constitutional responsibility to count the whole number of persons in each State,” a tally that is then used to decide the number of House districts in each state.

The judges said that Trump’s memo violated statutes related to the census that require the secretary of commerce to “report a single set of figures to the President,” which includes the total number of people in a state.

Trump’s memo broke from that requirement by ordering Secretary Wilbur Ross to turn over a report that excluded undocumented immigrants in the states.

The list Trump ordered would have to be compiled without using the census figures because the census does not include a citizenship question — thus violating a mandate from Congress, the judges concluded.

“The Presidential Memorandum violates Congress’s mandate to use the results of the census — and only the results of the census — in connection with the apportionment process and the counting of them in the census,” they wrote.

Since the first census in 1790, both US citizens and non-citizens have been included in the country’s official population count.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Trump would appeal the decision.