A panel of three federal judges in New York on Thursday prohibited the Trump administration from moving forward with plans to exclude undocumented immigrants from the count used to determine the number of seats states receive in the House of Representatives.

Census Bureau, to facilitate the collection of data that would allow him to remove immigrants without legal status from the count used for congressional apportionment.

The constitutionally-mandated process to determine the number of House seats each state has occurs every 10 years after the census is taken. .

The three-judge panel, which convened specifically to hear the case, said the proposal violates federal laws that govern the redrawing of congressional seats and the census count.

The Census Bureau's efforts to count people for the 2020 census — which have been hindered by the coronavirus pandemic — are currently underway.

has always counted both citizens and non-citizens, regardless of their immigration status, for the purposes of congressional apportionment.

The Constitution stipulates that each state must have at least one representative, and that the apportionment of other seats should be based on an enumeration of the population.

The 14th Amendment also requires Representatives to be apportioned based on "the whole number of persons in each State." In his order in July, Mr.

are counted in the census and how that data should be used.

citizenship during the 2020 census in March 2018.