TOPICS
TOPICS
Census officials launch bid to win trust of immigrants
With a year to go until Census Day, earning the trust of historically undercounted communities remains a key challenge for decennial headcounters, census officials and lawmakers said on Monday.
In a kickoff event for "census partnership" organizations ranging from the NAACP to the Target Corp. retail chain, leaders of the 2010 effort stressed the need to demystify the census among hard-to-reach populations that may be reluctant to offer personal information to government workers.
Recent immigrants, low-income urban workers and others may confuse a census worker with a police officer or tax collector, they warned.
"We have one year to convince populations that may approach 18 to 20 percent who are cynical about the census that this is a good thing to do," said Arnold Jackson, associate director of the 2010 census.
Census officials are in the process of mobilizing tens of thousands of churches, community groups, nonprofit groups, schools, and businesses to join in the public relations campaign. The effort to make the census brand sparkle includes the distribution of brochures and information to schoolchildren who, in turn, will be asked to encourage their parents to complete the census forms mailed to their households. "Those materials say, '[The] census is the best thing since steak and eggs," joked partnership operations chief Tim Olson. Census workers will begin canvassing neighborhoods to verify millions of addresses this week, and 150 offices have already been opened nationwide.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, in his first public appearance since his confirmation by the Senate, urged partner organizations to remind members of their community that their answers to census questions will remain confidential. "It is your familiar trusted voices that will help us succeed," he said. "We need you." Also speaking at the conference were House Oversight and Government Reform Census Subcommittee Chairman William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., and ranking member Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. Clay pledged that the subcommittee will "closely monitor the selection and appointment" of the as-yet unnamed new director for the Census Bureau.
COMMENTS
- To Chris Wheeland: Evidently you didn't hear of the uproar caused by the INS raid in March 07 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Ted Kennedy called for an investigation into the raid and likened the results to "the tragedy and human suffering that we all witnessed after the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina." "WOW, the arrests of 361 undocumented workers is compared to 700,000 affected by Katrina!" The comparison is not even close! Kennedy and Kerry both need to stand up for the American citizens who are law abiding citizens and have toiled to make this country great. How are the business benefiting by hiring these illegals? The businesses are paying low salaries, probably no benefits, & making huge profit without paying Federal, State, & local taxes, no Social Security Benefits, no Medicare taxes, no Hospitalization, etc. for these workers. Not to mention the illegals children (anchors) born in this country are considered citizens which the American Taxpayer must support! Most of the illegal alien's money is sent back to their homeland. How much did this loss of revenue contribute to our financial and economical situation? To justitiarul: My ancestors came through Ellis Island, NY, legally; I am 5th and 7th generation American. My ancestors were LEGAL law abiding citizens. I don’t care if you have been here 50 years; if you are illegal you have no rights! If you want benefits, protection, and rights become a legal citizen. My husband’s great grandfather came to American from England as an indentured servant and worked 7 years to pay his debt. As an indentured servant he could not afford to pay his ticket on a boat to American and someone in America paid it with the promise he would work for 7 years to pay back the cost. Consider the immigrants from other countries who cannot just walk across the border to freedom; they save money to be able to come to America, must get permission to come to America, and must wait to become citizens. Why should the illegal immigrant who crossed the border illegally be allowed to have a better opportunity and more privileges before the immigrants who were granted permission to enter the US? Illegals have already broken the law! American Taxpayer Posted April 21, 2009 9:56 AM
- No way No how shoudl we even think about counting Illegal Alliens, they are just that illegal! The only counting that should be done is when we put them on buses or boats deportign to thier home countries! John T Posted April 13, 2009 12:14 AM
- No way No how shoudl we even think about counting Illegal Alliens, they are just that illegal! The only counting that should be done is when we put them on buses or boats deportign to thier home countries! John T Posted April 13, 2009 12:14 AM
