The state is co-leading opposition to proposed federal rules that would change who is counted for congressional representation and restrict demographic questions.
MORRISTOWN, NJ – New Jersey is opposing proposed changes to the 2030 Census that state officials say could exclude at least 600,000 New Jersey residents from the population count and put congressional representation and federal funding at risk.
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport is co-leading a coalition of 24 attorneys general and two governors challenging the proposal through a comment letter submitted Nov. 2. Her office publicized the opposition Nov. 5.
“Everyone counts in New Jersey—just as the Constitution requires. The proposed census rule ignores that constitutional mandate and would undercount our population,” said Attorney General Davenport. “This would lead to the loss of an untold amount of federal funding for critical services and programs that touch all of our lives and our communities, including for vital public safety initiatives.”
The Census Bureau’s proposed rule, published Sept. 10, would exclude foreign citizens who are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents from the count used to allocate House seats. That would reach beyond undocumented immigrants to include people living here under other immigration statuses.
The coalition’s New Jersey estimate uses the state’s estimated undocumented population in 2023. It is not a count of everyone who could be excluded under the proposal. The letter says those residents alone represent more than 6% of the state’s population.
Dispute over who must be counted
The coalition argues that the exclusions would violate the Constitution’s requirement to apportion representation using the whole number of persons in each state, as well as the federal Census Act.
The administration takes a different position in the proposal. The Census Bureau argues that usual residence for apportionment involves sufficient ties or allegiance to the country and that excluding people without citizenship or permanent residency is within its legal authority.
These are competing legal positions in an ongoing rulemaking. The proposal is not a final rule, and the states’ comment letter is not a court ruling.
The bureau also proposes using a period from Jan. 3 through April 1 to determine usual residence, with tax records among the evidence considered. The coalition warns that this could shift where people are counted, including people who spend part of the winter away from their primary home.
Representation, funding and public data
Population figures determine each state’s share of seats in the U.S. House and inform the distribution of federal funding. The coalition argues that excluding residents would reduce the population reflected in those decisions while leaving the need for schools, roads, health care and other services in place.
Neither the letter nor New Jersey’s announcement establishes a specific dollar loss or number of congressional seats the state would lose. Those effects would depend on the final rules, the eventual population count and the formulas used to distribute representation and funding.
A separate part of the proposal would prohibit questions about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation on questionnaires used to enumerate the population. The bureau says the restrictions would protect the core count. The states argue that losing demographic information would impair public planning and civil rights enforcement.
For New Jersey, the coalition identifies uses ranging from immigrant-service planning to identifying communities covered by environmental justice protections. The state and its partners are asking the Census Bureau to withdraw the proposal.