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Latinos divided over decision to protest 2010 Census
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The importance of immigration reform cannot be ignored
As the 2010 national Census approaches, preparations throughout the country are being made in order to collect the very important data regarding the number of people living in the United States. The importance of participating in the national census is addressed in the U.S. constitution and makes it a requirement by law that every person residing in the United States, no matter their legal status, be counted at the time of the census. The data was first collected in 1790 and has continued every ten years since then. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, any and all personal responses collected from the census are confidential. The main purposes of the census is “to distribute Congressional seats to states, to make decisions about what community services to provide, and to distribute $300 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year.”
With all that said, the Latino community, particularly the undocumented immigrant community, finds itself in a significant dilemma in regards to the 2010 census. In recent developments, undocumented Latino immigrants have been and continue to be asked by a number of Latinos and Latino organizations, such as CONLAMIC, to boycott the census as a means to gain leverage in the battle for immigration reform. The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC) is being extremely vocal in their attempt to organize a massive boycott of the census. Meanwhile, there are a strong number of Latinos and Latino organizations opposing the request to withhold from census participation due to fear of impeding any positive progress that has been made in the past by strong Latino representation in the census. The undocumented Latino immigrant community is the largest in Los Angeles let alone California. A boycott of the census by this community would have a massive impact on all of California politics.
For those who are encouraging a boycott of the census, a boycott is viewed as a justified action by undocumented Latino immigrants. For years immigrants have been calling for immigration reform and for years the reform has been delayed. Now, as a way to gain reform, advocates of the boycott want to use the participation of undocumented Latino immigrants as a bargaining chip. A strong reason for those encouraging a census boycott is to protect undocumented Latino immigrants from being exploited. They see undocumented Latino immigrants as being inappropriately used by the state, city, and district, through the collection of data, to receive federal funds for which many of the same undocumented immigrants are ineligible to receive.
However, on the other end of the argument there are many Latinos who fully support the census process and encourage all undocumented Latino immigrants to be counted. Those in support of census participation acknowledge the great impact of being counted. A lack of participation in the census by undocumented Latino immigrants, especially in the state of California, which is home to an overwhelming amount, could lead to many negative affects for the entire state. Losses of Congressional seats which subsequently would result in the loss of funding for many Californians and their communities is the greatest impact. Power through numbers is what advocates of the census want to remind the Latino community. A strong representation in the census by the Latino community can lead to gaining leverage over the issue of immigration reform in the near future.
The census has created a considerably large and unfortunate divide within the Latino community. Among undocumented Latino immigrants who oppose participating in the census, a strong reason for their opposition is their fear that, if counted, statistics acquired from this census will be used against them in the future to advocate stronger immigration policies due to the high number of undocumented immigrants revealed to be living in the U.S. The fear is so prevalent, many immigrants are hesitant to even discuss census participation.
Among those undocumented Latino immigrants who oppose non-participation and plan to be counted, a strong reason for their participation is a need to represent strong and positive numbers for their community. The belief is, strong numbers and representation in the census will lead to more Congressional seats acquired, and eventually that will lead to attaining immigration reform.
Census questionnaires are scheduled to be mailed and delivered to households during February and March of 2010.
Participate in the poll: What would you do if you found (find) yourself in the position of an undocumented Latino immigrant? http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1893615/
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