With the midterm elections looming, Republicans are trying to secure every advantage they can as they face the prospect of Democrats taking control of the House.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the Commerce Department to begin work on a new census that excludes immigrants in the U.S. illegally, revisiting a push from his first term that was later rejected by the courts and reversed by his successor.

The decennial census is a constitutionally mandated count of every person living in the United States, regardless of citizenship status, at the start of each new decade since 1790. The census is primarily used to determine states' representation in Congress,