The Trump administration proposes radical changes to the census that could exclude millions

(CNN) -- The administration of US President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed making sweeping changes to the census that could exclude millions from the census process, dramatically changing the distribution of congressional seats and the allocation of billions of dollars in federal funding.

The proposed regulations, which were published in the Federal Register, include adding a question about citizenship to the 2030 census, and excluding immigrants from the national population survey who do not have legal permanent residency, including undocumented individuals, asylum seekers, and refugees.

This proposal - which is similar to a previous unsuccessful attempt during Trump's first term - represents a radical shift from established census practices, which have historically relied on counting all residents regardless of their legal immigration status.

Critics and civil rights groups have long warned that Trump's attempt to add a question about citizenship would lead to undercounts of minorities; It would scare off legal residents or naturalized citizens from completing the survey, which is conducted every 10 years and is also used to determine funding allocations for a wide range of government programs.

These proposed changes may take months to become official, and will likely face legal challenges. The public has 30 days to submit their comments and opinions on the proposal.

The rules, which are not yet final, come just over a year after Trump directed the Commerce Department to begin work on a new census that would exclude undocumented immigrants and reinstate the citizenship question.

This regulatory move also comes months after the administration appointed a group of partisan analysts - affiliated with the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute - within the Census Bureau, sources told CNN in August. Note that the agency was traditionally run by professional statisticians and operated independently of the White House.

The US Constitution requires a national census to be conducted every 10 years to determine the number of seats each state gets in the House of Representatives, as the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution stipulates the necessity of counting “the total number of persons in each state.”

The administration seeks not to include questions related to race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, claiming that the survey “should be color-neutral and not be distorted by questions about non-substantive personal characteristics.”

Trump has been trying to amend census rules since his first term, when he sought to reinstate a question about citizenship - a question that was included in most census operations between 1820 and 1950 - considering this necessary to ensure better compliance with federal law related to voting rights.

The US President's move led to a lawsuit by a coalition of 18 district attorneys, six cities, and the US Conference of Mayors (which includes members from both parties), which ended up blocking the move with a decision from the Supreme Court.

Following the issuance of the ruling, Trump retreated from this effort, and instead turned to requesting federal agencies to provide records that would allow determining the numbers of citizens.