Connecticut’s top Democrats say a proposed change to how the 2030 census is conducted would cut roughly 250,000 people out of the state’s population count used to allocate U.S. House seats and federal funding. The Census Bureau’s September proposal would limit that count, known as the apportionment base, to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. People in the country illegally, asylum seekers, and others without permanent legal status would no longer count toward congressional representation or Electoral College votes.
Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) appeared with advocacy groups on Friday to oppose the plan. The Connecticut Centinal reported the 250,000 estimate reflects the state’s non-citizen population that would fall outside the new base.
DeLauro called the rules illegal and accused the administration of targeting states with large immigrant populations.
“This is an effort by the Trump Administration to punish blue states and states with higher immigrant populations. New York, California, New Jersey, yes, and Connecticut. Connecticut ranks 11th out of all 50 states for immigrant population,” DeLauro said. “This is an effort to rig the system, rob the American people of their right to be represented properly.”
In a separate statement, DeLauro said the change was “changing how residency is counted, increasing the risk of distorted representation.”
Bysiewicz went further, claiming Trump wants to “manipulate the census to give taxpayer funding and political power to the states that he favors.”
Lamont and DeLauro both acknowledged the stakes are even higher for New York and California, which have larger non-citizen populations than Connecticut.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, has filed comments opposing the rule. Tong previously said in December 2024 that “America runs on Dunkin and undocumented workers.”
Supporters of the proposal argue that apportioning House seats and Electoral College votes based on citizens and lawful permanent residents simply ensures that political representation reflects the country’s lawful population, rather than inflating the influence of states with large populations of people who are not legally present. Critics counter that it would strip representation from areas with large immigrant communities regardless of legal status, concentrating power away from states like Connecticut, New York, California and New Jersey.
