MACA Act Forces Dual Citizens to Declare Second Allegiance on 2030 Census

The “Make Allegiances Clear Again Act,” or MACA Act, is short but packs a punch. Starting with the 2030 decennial census, this bill requires the Secretary of Commerce to add a mandatory new question: Are you a citizen of the United States and another country? If the answer is yes, respondents must then specify which other country that is, and this information must be collected for every person in the household (Sec. 2).

Your Passport, Their Business

For the millions of Americans who hold dual citizenship—whether they immigrated here or inherited the status from their parents—this is a significant change. Currently, the census focuses on counting the population for the purpose of congressional apportionment and federal funding allocation. It asks about race, ethnicity, and housing status, but it has historically avoided mandatory, highly sensitive questions about specific citizenship status, especially when it involves foreign ties.

This new requirement means that for the first time, the federal government will have a comprehensive, mandatory list detailing exactly how many people hold dual citizenship and precisely which countries they are tied to. Think about the logistics: if you are a dual citizen of the U.S. and, say, Canada, you will be required to check that box. If your neighbor is a dual citizen of the U.S. and China, they must also check the box and name the country. This level of granular data collection about specific foreign allegiances raises immediate red flags about privacy and potential targeting.

The Chilling Effect on Participation

The census relies on high participation rates to ensure accurate counts for everything from determining how many congressional seats a state gets to allocating billions in federal funding for schools, roads, and hospitals. When the government adds a highly sensitive question—one that essentially asks people to declare a foreign loyalty—it can create what’s known as a “chilling effect.”

If people with international ties, or those living in mixed-status households, fear that this data could be used for profiling, security reviews, or immigration enforcement down the line, they might simply choose not to fill out the census at all. If enough people skip the census out of privacy concerns, the resulting population count will be inaccurate, leading to underrepresentation and lost federal dollars for their communities. While the bill’s stated purpose is to count the population, the practical challenge is that this new question could actively undermine the census's core mission of achieving an accurate count.

Data Security and Stigmatization

While the bill itself is clear about what must be collected, it doesn't offer explicit safeguards on how this highly sensitive data linking individuals to specific foreign nations will be secured or used beyond simple population statistics. For dual citizens, particularly those tied to countries with strained U.S. relations, this mandatory disclosure could lead to increased scrutiny or even stigmatization.

It’s one thing to know how many immigrants live in the U.S.; it’s entirely another to force a mandatory public accounting of specific foreign allegiances from U.S. citizens. This moves the census from being a simple demographic tool to something that feels more like an identity register, and that's a big shift for millions of busy people who just want to ensure their community gets its fair share of resources.