Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, has sued the Census Bureau and Department of Commerce over its inclusion of illegal aliens in the 2020 census.
In a lawsuit announced Friday, Hanaway demanded that the 2020 census and all future censuses be modified to exclude illegal aliens and temporary visa holders.
“United States citizens and lawful permanent residents have a right to representation, unlike illegal aliens and temporary visa holders,” Hanaway said in press release.
“In America, the People, the members of the social compact, are the only legitimate source of the government’s power. We are taking a stand against those who are cheating our system,” she added.
United States citizens have a right to representation, NOT illegal aliens. United States citizens should decide electoral votes and congressional seats, NOT illegal aliens.
We are suing @uscensusbureau for unconstitutionally allowing illegal aliens to commandeer the path to The… pic.twitter.com/UzU4UIF74V
— Attorney General Catherine L. Hanaway (@AGCHanaway) January 30, 2026
The lawsuit alleges that the current census “steals federal representation from Missourians, and transfers it to States who artificially inflate their population by harboring illegal aliens.”
“Attorney General Hanaway will not allow open-border states like California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland to steal an estimated 11 congressional seats, 11 electoral votes, and billions of dollars in funding,” the AG’s press release maintained.
The lawsuit also alleges that Missouri would benefit from another congressional seat and Electoral College vote by 2030 if the changes she demands were implemented.
Speaking with St. Louis Public Radio (STLPR), Missouri Solicitor General Louis Capozzi argued that the legal precedent established in Franklin v. Massachusetts (1992) supports Hanaway’s lawsuit.
It does so by providing a constitutional interpretive framework for limiting the census apportionment count to “inhabitants” with lawful domicile and an “enduring tie” or “allegiance” to a state, rather than mere physical presence.
“Our position is that illegal aliens and temporary foreign visitors are not and cannot be deemed domiciled in the United States,” Capozzi explained. “Citizens and lawful permanent residents are domiciled, and they can be counted.”
🚨 This data only counts citizens for the purposes of apportion.
‼️ Translation: not counting illegals in the census for purposes of apportionment (E.g., doing it the Constitutional way) moves a net 22 House Seats & Electoral Votes from Blue States to Red States. https://t.co/6Pgyi3QGyt
— James Blair (@JamesBlairUSA) January 29, 2026
The lawsuit continues by arguing that the current census incentivizes blue states to install policies that attract and benefit illegal aliens precisely because of the political advantage more illegal aliens provide them.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the fact they gain political power due to the presence of more illegal aliens, States like California and New York now intentionally undermine federal authority by defending the interests of illegal aliens,” the lawsuit reads.
“The framers of the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment never intended an absurd system where 15 million illegal trespassers can hijack representation in the federal government and commandeer the path to the White House,” Hanaway said in a statement to Fox News.
Critics like Washington University law professor Travis Crum disagree.
“Section 2 of the 14th Amendment says that representatives are apportioned among the several states by the whole number of persons, and that has been understood to mean everyone who is domiciled there, everyone who lives there, and the reasons why they chose that language is pretty clear,” he told St. Louis station KSDK.
“When the people who wrote the 14th Amendment wanted to differentiate between citizens and persons, they knew how to do so,” he continued.
🚨NEW: Missouri has filed a lawsuit arguing that the Census must exclude aliens illegally or temporarily in the U.S. and count only those legally within the United States. pic.twitter.com/bUPC9WkOlu
— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) January 30, 2026
Crum added that, in his opinion, “Missouri’s argument is fairly weak on the merits.”
Appearing this Friday on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton” radio show, Hanaway explained to everyday voters why her suit matters.
“This is, I think, the most significant election lawsuit filed in probably a couple of generations because if we win, not only will 11 House seats be reallocated from places like California to places like Missouri, but with those House seats also go Electoral votes,” she said.
“And the other thing that goes is any federal assistance. And right now we’re counting illegal immigrants in the census. President Trump tried to put an end to that in 2020 while he was still in office, but then when Biden won that election, he reversed it and counted illegal immigrants in the 2020 census. We’re saying we should go back, take them out of that census, and certainly should not count them in the 2030 census,” she added.
.@AGCHanaway to @ClayTravis and @BuckSexton on Missouri’s suit to stop the Census Bureau from counting illegal aliens: “If we win, not only will 11 House seats be reallocated from places like California to places like Missouri, but with those House seats also go electoral votes.” pic.twitter.com/Pj8lEJKqib
— The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show (@clayandbuck) January 30, 2026
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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