OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta co-led a coalition of 24 attorneys general and two governors in submitting a comment letter on Monday opposing the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to the 2030 Census. The U.S. Census Bureau proposed a rule for the 2030 Census that would exclude millions of noncitizens from the census count.

The proposal would exclude around 3 million California residents, representing more than 7.5% of the state’s population. Based on available data, the proposal would exclude roughly 16.1 million people nationwide from the census count. The proposed rule would exclude undocumented immigrants, people on temporary visas, refugees, asylum seekers, and certain U.S. nationals from the census count.

"The U.S. Constitution requires that the Census count every person living in the United States. The Trump Administration doesn’t get to pick and choose who is included," said Attorney General Rob Bonta. "Excluding millions of people is not only blatantly unlawful, but also threatens communities’ political representation and distorts access to critical federal funding."

The coalition argues the proposed exclusions violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s requirement to count all persons for congressional apportionment. They also argue the exclusions violate the Census Act, which requires the Census Bureau to report each state’s total population for determining its share of congressional seats.

The proposed rule prohibits questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in the 2030 Census. The coalition argues that prohibiting these questions deprives states of critical data relied upon to shape public policy, identify disparities, evaluate government programs, enforce antidiscrimination laws, and support research.

The proposed rule abandons the usual residence standard in favor of a test based on where people lawfully spend the greatest number of days between January 3 and April 1. It relies on tax records as evidence of residency. The coalition argues that the new residency test could result in people being counted in vacation homes, workplaces, or other places where they do not ordinarily live, distorting state population counts and the apportionment of political representation.

The coalition includes the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. It also includes the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.