President Donald Trump's order to not count undocumented immigrants in the coming congressional reapportionment will be challenged in court by Attorney General Letitia James. 

The order approved on Tuesday comes as the United States Census is already underway, and the once-a-decade count is used to determine the boundaries of congressional districts as well as how many seats in the House of Representatives each state is allocated. 

The U.S. Constitution makes no requirement that non-citizens be barred from being counted in the Census. 

“No one ceases to be a person because they lack documentation. Under the law, every person residing in the U.S. during the census, regardless of status, must be counted," James said in a statement.

“We beat the president before in court, and we’ll challenge him once again on the census. We will continue to lead this fight because we will not allow the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant policies to tip the balance of power in the nation.”

The stakes for New York are high, given the state is home to a large undocumented immigrant population, and is already expected to lose at least one seat in the House of Representatives after 2022.