Thread: O.C., CA. Immigration raids could mar Census count

Published: June 18, 2010
Updated: 7:42 p.m.

Immigration raids could mar Census count

ELIAS J. GROLLTHE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Continuing federal immigration raids in Orange County threaten to hamper an effort by the Census Bureau to reach traditionally undercounted immigrant and minority populations.

Though the Census Bureau is legally bound not to disclose the information it collects, it is viewed with suspicion among immigrant communities that associate most federal officials with immigration enforcement, making it difficult for the census to reach immigrant communities.

That problem has been exacerbated in recent weeks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, especially in largely Latino communities in Santa Ana, in what is a departure from previous policy.

"This year it was different, and there were more people saying they would not participate," said Moises Escalante, who organized faith-based groups to encourage their members to participate in the census and also worked for the 2000 census. "If people see that the federal government is doing raids they are afraid."

In 2000 the federal government instituted a moratorium on highly visible enforcement, instructing its officers to exercise "particular consideration" when operating in residential areas. But this year no such moratorium has been put in place, raids have continued, and many immigrants have felt reluctant to give their personal information to the government—even with assurances that it will not shared with immigration authorities.

Immigration issues have gained increased attention after the passage of a strict immigration law in Arizona, but because the Arizona law passed the state legislature after the end of the outreach period in the run up to census day on April 1, activists are not sure whether the law has had an adverse impact on census participation during the follow up period.

According to Mark Belville, who led a crew of 18 enumerators during the follow up phase, the strict immigration law had little effect on participation.

Most of those who chose not to turn in a form during the follow up were reflexively suspicious of officials—"the I ain't telling the government nothing type"—he said.

But Escalante said he thought that the law was likely to further dampen participation because it would only draw more attention to undocumented aliens, something he says has caused fear of authorities among immigrant communities in the past.

"I wouldn't be surprised if people would connect those dots between what's going on in California and in Arizona and it has a negative effect on people's minds" he said.

U.S. law mandates that the census count both the legal and illegal immigrant population, but according to census workers and organizers the presence of multiple federal agencies in local communities has made it difficult to convince immigrants that one agency will not share information with another, leading many immigrants to refuse to turn in census forms.

In response, the Census Bureau launched a massive campaign this year to educate minority communities about the census and its importance—that the confidential information they submitted would lead to more federal funding for local services such as schools and healthcare.

Working with local community and faith-based groups, the Census Bureau has hired local outreach officers to market the census to their own communities in the native languages.

That effort appears to have made headway among minority and immigrant communities, but continues to be hampered by federal immigration enforcement.

"As a Spanish bilingual the biggest challenge was the raids," said Beatriz Fernandez, who conducted outreach efforts in Santa Ana. "People would ask, 'Are you giving our information to Homeland Security? Is someone going to come knock on our door if I give you my information?'"

ICE's latest raid in Santa Ana came last Sunday, according to Fernandez, further fueling fears that arrests would continue and heightening suspicion toward the federal government.

"The Department of Homeland Security fully supports a thorough and accurate count of the U.S. population and we are committed to working with the Census Bureau to ensure our enforcement activities do not interfere with this process," Lori Haley, a DHS spokesperson, said in an e-mailed statement.

But it is not clear that the federal government could or should implement a moratorium like it did in 2000.

According to Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service when it instituted a moratorium in 2000, the longer reporting period of this year's census makes it difficult to institute a moratorium.

Additionally, she said, the huge amounts of money funneled to ICE have created high expectations for enforcement, creating a need to "fill beds."
Political calculations also make a moratorium in 2010 more difficult.

"It's always more difficult for Democrats to deal with these kinds of enforcement issues because Democrats are always sensitive to the charge of being soft on crime," Meissner said.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/census-2 ... deral.html

GOOD!!

Freaking illegals shouldn't even be counted in the first place, it's just another intentional misuse of the 14th Amendment.

Originally Posted by Bowman

GOOD!!

Freaking illegals shouldn't even be counted in the first place, it's just another intentional misuse of the 14th Amendment.

Ditto!

Illegal should be counted in order to determine how many buses we need to deport them.

I agree, illegals should never be counted, an accurate or at least almost accurate count of legal citizens can control how much Medical and other state freebies are really needed.

All those extra heads being counted gives local and state governments more money than needed for their budgets, and they spend it regardless. That's what has happened to California, more state government freebie programs mean more state, county and city workers, who now outnumber all of private business employees. Most of the employed folks in my community are working for a hodge-podge of non-profits whose services overlap each other and all funded from the city general fund.

The shortage of funds is being made up by closing libraries, go figure.

It's a vicious circle that I hope will crash and burn soon. Sure, it will hurt, but we have to start from scratch to get things running smoothly again. Hopefully without illegals and all the demands they make on taxpayers.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-5371--0-0.html

Our Federal Government feels duty-bound to count each and every single head, legal or illegal. Their line of reasoning is that they need to know how to apportion representation, and social services, to legal and illegal residents.

But a Congressman once stated that around 25 American citizens per day lose their lives at the hands of illegal aliens, through murder and accidents. This amounts to more than 9000 American lives lost per year, or 90,000 every 10 years, which is how often they perform the US Census.

Millions of illegal aliens can choose whether or not to participate in our Census. But these 90,000 Americans can no longer exercise this right. Is this any way to get a fair count?

I for 1 am sick and tired of hearing how much fear there is in the latino community or immigrant community. Criminals are the only people who need to be in fear LOL or scared weep weep

Being the case our movement has failed in this regard

Our whole movement should have been getting it out there that the census was meant to find and arrest illegals ,

They really need to feel the fear ,

Any mis information that we can put out directed at enhancing that fear in their "communities" is good for us.

We have to do everything we can to combat this problem within the rules

Here is why they are having raids in some parts of Orange County CA.

Spike in gang violence may foreshadow a long, hot summer

"Santa Ana has 362 sworn officers trying to contain 5,000 documented gang members."

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-203296.html