Washington, DC – SEARAC strongly opposes President Donald Trump’s unlawful order to exclude noncitizens from the 2030 Census. This unconstitutional directive threatens to undercount millions of people in immigrant and refugee communities and undermines the accuracy of one of our country’s most essential democratic tools.
Conducted every 10 years, the census is a nationwide count of every person living in the country and is used to determine how billions of federal dollars are distributed to states and local communities for schools, healthcare, transportation, and more. It also decides how many seats each state gets in Congress and helps enforce civil rights protections.
“The census is about visibility, resources, and political voice,” said Quyên Đinh, Executive Director of SEARAC and a former appointee to the US Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee. “When I served on the committee, our goal was to ensure all communities—including immigrant, refugee, and limited-English speaking households—were counted. Removing noncitizens from the census count is a direct attack on families like those in the Southeast Asian American community, many of whom live in mixed-status households. Our communities deserve to be fully counted and represented in the data that shape our future.”
There are an estimated 76,000 undocumented Vietnamese immigrants living in the United States, many of whom are part of mixed-status families and long-established communities. Excluding noncitizens from the census would erase the presence of entire households, gravely reducing critical funding for schools, healthcare, and local services.
SEARAC urges leaders at all levels to reject efforts that politicize the census. We remain committed to defending a full and accurate count, so that every person, regardless of immigration status, is represented and resourced fairly.
Media contact: Elaine Sanchez Wilson, elaine@searac.org
