The Census Project Blog

by Terri Ann Lowenthal

“State GOP hopes to block census from counting illegal immigrants” (New Orleans Times-Picayune, 8/29/09)

“Immigration activists urge census boycott” (Boston Globe, 9/8/09)

What do these headlines have in common? Not hard to figure out, I’m afraid. They describe two independent campaigns – one to exclude non-citizens from the census counts used for apportionment; the other a call for immigrants to boycott the census until Congress enacts comprehensive immigration reform — that are likely to produce the same result: An undercount of immigrants and Latinos in the 2010 census.

A number of lawmakers and other opinion leaders are shocked – SHOCKED! – to “discover” that everyone, regardless of legal status, is counted in the census. In fact, this is a “perennial decennial” issue – one of several concerns that surface every ten years. Long enough, I suppose, for people to forget that both Democratic and Republican Solicitors General have concluded that the U.S. Constitution envisions congressional apportionment based on a count of all people living in the country (with exceptions carved out expressly … more on that in a moment).

No matter – just last month, the latest bill to propose excluding non-citizens from the census surfaced in Congress. Similar proposals would leave out undocumented residents only. Constitutional questions aside, how would we accomplish this policy? Put a question on the census form, according to the new legislation. Maybe something like this?

Congress is not going to stop the 2010 census in its tracks to add a question to the 180 million forms rolling off the presses (after years of research and testing). So why introduce a bill now? With the Census Bureau heavily promoting a lean-and-mean enumeration, hoping to ease fears among immigrants, any talk of including a question on legal status may well cause confusion and dampen participation in these communities.

Enter the boycott effort, which advocates a broad rejection of the census not just by undocumented immigrants but by all Hispanics, unless Congress moves more quickly on immigration reform. The brainchild of a Latino evangelical clergyman, the campaign’s premise – legalize us before you count us – plays to disappointment with the long-term failure of political leaders to address the status and treatment of the undocumented.

I understand the frustration … but not the strategy. I don’t see a good outcome for anyone with a stake in the battle to advance a sensible immigration policy. Congress is not easily swayed to action by threats, and the Administration has already put off immigration reform another year, making the boycott a useless tactic. More alarming, if large numbers of Latinos avoid next year’s count, they will have little leverage in the redistricting process, potentially leaving them with fewer lawmakers who support their cause and represent their interests. A Boston-based boycott leader suggested that an incomplete census would “tak[e] away money and power from the politicians.” No … an undercount would take money and power directly from Latinos and their communities.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, has called the boycott campaign “immoral.” I think I understand what he means.

Article I, section 2, of the Constitution, apportioned seats in Congress based on “the whole Number of free Persons” (including indentured servants but excluding Indians not taxed) and three-fifths of all slaves, whose numbers would have boosted the political influence of southern states. We tried to right that wrong with the Fourteenth Amendment; sitting out the 2010 census would be a 234-year step backwards for those seeking an equal voice in our democracy.

Regrettably, it boils down to this: Boycott leaders, if successful, would accomplish for the pro-exclusion advocates what those lawmakers cannot now achieve legislatively — remove large numbers of Latinos from the state population totals used for apportionment. The specter of advocates for comprehensive immigration reform directly aiding those who largely oppose greater rights for immigrants, is hard to comprehend.

It’s time to stop using the census as a vehicle for pressing all sorts of unrelated political causes. Let’s have debates over immigration policy and reform; go ahead and squabble over labor unions and low-income advocacy groups — but stop playing all of these games in the census sandbox!