President Trump made a dramatic announcement on Truth Social recently: “I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024.”

He added, “People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.”

It is not clear what impact “modern day facts and figures” would have on the nation’s headcount, but Trump's determination to exclude undocumented persons from the count will change the numbers significantly.

You can bet there will be a great deal of attention paid to this proposal. Democrats who will howl that the shift is illegal, immoral, and probably racist.

But Trump is correct. It is clear the census needs drastic improvement and that undocumented people should not be included. The 2020 count was a mess, with even the Census Bureau’s own research arm concluding eight states were over-counted and six were undercounted. The census took place during COVID, and most likely the pandemic took a toll on the efficiency and accuracy of the report.

The errors in the headcount are especially newsworthy today, in light of the skirmish taking place in Texas over redistricting. Democrat legislators there have fled to blue cities around the country to avoid having to vote on the new political map, which reportedly would hand Republicans in the state an additional five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The fugitive Democrats are hiding mainly in Chicago, at the invitation........

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