Donald Trump to Take Executive Action on 2020 Census, Citizenship

President Donald Trump will announce executive action on the 2020 U.S. Census on Thursday, pursuing his fight to include a citizenship question in the decennial population count despite being rebuffed by the Supreme Court.

The executive action is expected to be announced at a news conference, according to three people familiar with Trump’s plan. They declined to detail the action, but indicated it may not be an executive order.

The people, who asked not to be identified because the plan isn’t yet public, said details were still fluid. White House officials declined to comment.

Trump “is pushing everyone in the White House and the Department of Justice to find all the various ways he can” move ahead with plans to ask people their citizenship status as part of next year’s Census, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli said Wednesday.

A June 27 Supreme Court ruling put on hold the administration’s initial plan to include a citizenship question. The forms for the once-a-decade headcount must be prepared soon to meet the deadline for 2020.

The administration initially appeared to accept the Supreme Court decision and began printing Census forms that did not include the question. But Trump subsequently ordered the government to re-examine the issue in a tweet, prompting the Justice Department to explore alternatives.

Census-takers started asking about citizenship in 1820 but haven’t posed the question to every household since 1950.