by Jacqueline Baylon
No offenses this time: After an exchange of offenses they get together at the Americas Summit.Could they be friends?
Next year’s April 1 Decennial Census kickoff is already attracting lots of interest and some apprehension in the Hispanic community. As Latino organizations pledge to work with the Census Bureau this time around, they’re expressing concern that the federal government could, among other worries, miss counting well over a million Hispanics, as it admitted to doing in 2000.
Several Hispanic organizations have joined forces to helpthe Census Bureau by launching the campaign Ya es hora, ¡Hágase Contar (It’s Time, Make Yourself Count!).
The project is led by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which promotes participation of Latinos in the U.S. political process.
In 2006, the Ya es Hora ¡Ciudadanía! drive was geared to encourage eligible permanent residents to apply for U.S. citizenship. In 2008, a second phase, Ya es Hora jVe y Vota!, rallied Latinos to participate in that year’s presidential election.
Now, with the partnership of Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, NALEO’s Educational Fund, along with the National Council of La Raza, League of United Latin American Citizens, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other ethnic and union groups, the civic action continues with a focus on obtaining a full Census count.
Involved also are several Spanish-language media companies, among them Azteca America, Entravisión Communications, ImpreMedia, Univision Communications and Telemundo.
On April 1 the latter cable channel, which is directed at bilingual Latinos, kicked off its public service campaign “Hazle Contar!” (Be Counted). Organizations partnering with Telemundo include LULAC, the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute and MANA, a National Latina Organization.
The 2010 Census is expected to cost the government $14 billion. The U.S~ Constitution requires the Census Bureau to count everyone residing in the United States and its territories every ten years regardless of immigration status.
Angelo Falcón, president of the New York-based National Institute for Latino Policy, says to ensure a valid tally, the bureau must hire trained bilingual enumerators, including a sufficient number to reach growing immigrant populations who speak indigenous languages Falcon, who serves as a member of the Census Bureau’s Hispanic advisory committee and chairs the watchdog Latino Census Network, a collaborative of some 30 organizations focused on census issues, mentions workplace raids by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a potentially serious turn-off to communities whose cooperation is essential.
Gabriela Lemus, president of Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, told Weekly Report her organization has already gone on record asking ICE to discontinue its aggressive actions that breed distrust of our government and disrupt families. I CE should direct its enforcement attention to employers who are breaking the law.
If the 3 percent Hispanic undercount of 2000 Census is repeated in 2010, 1.4 million Latinos will be missed, by the bureau’s own admission.
That, advocates point congressional districts.
“The census is the foundation of our democracy and we cannot have fair representation as Latinos in Congress and state legislatures without a full census,” says Arturo Vargas, NALEO executive director.
Raúl Cisneros, Decennial’s media relations branch chief at the U.S. Department of Commerce, explains, “The count is used to determine how many seats each state will have in the U. S. House of Representatives.”
More than $300 billion in federal funds is awarded based of census data to states and communities to support a variety of programs and public services.
More than 15 percent of the nation’s population is Hispanic. Between 2010 and 2050 the Hispanic population is projected to triple, raising its proportion to 25 percent.
The Census Bureau projects Hispanics’ economic muscle will rise from $662 billion in 2007 to more than $1.2 trillion in 2012, accounting for 9.7 percent of all U.S. buying power. Hispanic Link.
