A three-judge panel ruled Thursday that the Trump administration cannot exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census count, after a coalition of states, cities and immigrant-advocacy groups led by New York state Attorney General Letitia James challenged the move in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The panel, which included U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman and Judges Peter Hall and Richard Wesley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, found that Trump's July 21 memo ordering the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the Congressional apportionment base was "unlawful."

The panel issued a permanent injunction preventing federal officials from including in reports "any information permitting the President to exercise the President's discretion to carry out the policy set forth" in the memorandum, including information about the number of undocumented immigrants in each state in the census report.