Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is asking the federal government to literally change who counts as a Floridian.
In a petition filed Monday with the U.S. Census Bureau, Uthmeier urged the agency to stop including people he says are in the country illegally in Florida's official population totals, and in some of his requests, to exclude their children as well. He argues that the current approach shortchanged the state in the last count, costing Florida at least one congressional seat and millions in federal funding.
The petition calls on the Census to start asking about citizenship and immigration status, to end the use of statistical inferences that Uthmeier says distort state numbers, and to return to what he describes as "historical census-taking standards," according to WTSP. The filing specifically seeks to exclude from the state population count children of immigrants who lack legal documentation and children of temporary residents. It was submitted from Tallahassee and directed to the Census Bureau officials who handle apportionment and redistricting.
"By addressing these systemic flaws, the petition seeks to restore equal balance among the states and people," Uthmeier said in a statement from his office to WTSP. His office contends that revising the count would return lost representation and funding to Florida communities he says were shorted in 2020.
What the Census Found
The Census Bureau's 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey, an after-the-fact quality check, estimated statistically significant undercounts in six states: Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. It also found overcounts in eight others, according to the Census Bureau. For Florida, the survey estimated roughly a 3.48% undercount, or about 761,094 people. The bureau, however, has been clear that the Post-Enumeration Survey is a statistical tool meant to improve future counts and cannot be used to alter the official census numbers that were already certified.
Legal Hurdles
Constitutional experts point out that the Apportionment Clause requires counting the "whole number of persons" in each state, not just citizens. They also note that the Post-Enumeration Survey is not an "actual enumeration" in the constitutional sense and is therefore unlikely to be accepted by courts as a replacement for the official count. As AP reported, legal specialists say any move to reassign congressional seats or carve noncitizens out of apportionment would run into major constitutional and statutory barriers. In other words, this is not a simple paperwork tweak.
State and Local Stakes
Uthmeier's office insists that the undercount translated into the loss of at least one U.S. House seat for Florida, along with significant federal dollars that are tied to population-based formulas. The petition frames the requested changes as a way to level the playing field for the state.
Opponents counter that asking detailed questions about citizenship or excluding certain groups from counts could scare people away from responding at all, particularly in immigrant and other hard-to-count communities. Those concerns surfaced prominently in earlier national fights over adding a citizenship question to the census. Adding fuel to the political fire, fact-checkers have flagged some of the attorney general's broader claims about census history as inaccurate, according to PolitiFact, which has added another layer of controversy to the filing.
What Comes Next
The Census Bureau says it will review formal submissions, but it has also emphasized that Post-Enumeration Survey findings are meant to guide improvements and are not a tool to rewrite past apportionment counts, per the Census Bureau. Any move that would actually change how seats in Congress are allocated or how population-based funding formulas work would almost certainly require Congress to act or a court to step in.
That means Uthmeier's push is likely to evolve into a broader legal and political battle, potentially landing in federal court. For now, the petition marks Florida's latest entry in the ongoing national fights over immigration, redistricting and one deceptively simple question: who gets counted.
