On Thursday, President Trump announced he has directed the Commerce Department to begin work on a new U.S. Census which specifically excludes illegal aliens from the count. While some might think this new census might be insignificant to “Red” states like Tennessee, the impacts could be broader than just redistricting.
While the most notable result of the national decennial census is the apportionment of Representatives to the U.S. House, thereby establishing a state’s political balance of power, the counts also have ties to financial distributions and federal funding allocations.
Per 2023 estimates, Tennessee has a population of at least 128,000 – 162,000 illegal immigrants, between 1.8%-2.25% of the population, though these numbers do not account for the massive influxes of unknown “got aways” under the Biden administration.
The state has also been identified as one of several red states seeing a proportionally high influx of illegals and has been recently reported as one of the Top 10 states with the most ICE-related arrests.
