By Evan Armstrong
Community Engagement VISTA

A commonly heard criticism of the census is that it should not count undocumented citizens, a standard the Census Bureau has held since 1790. There are estimated to be more than 10 million undocumented individuals in the United States, and most of these people are working and paying taxes like everyone else. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana proposed in October that the census be modified to only count official United States citizens when reapportioning districts for 2012. This would have enormous consequences in electoral politics, but was ultimately an empty-handed gesture – preparation for Census 2010 was too far along for this proposed change to be taken seriously. However, some critics go even farther than Senator Vitter, advocating that the undocumented not be counted at all.

So to combat that, here are several important reasons why the undocumented are counted every decade:

It is in the Constitution. Non-citizens have been included in the census since its inception. The legal requirement to count every person living in the US is incontrovertible, and has been repeatedly upheld in court.

Funding for public services depends on a complete count. Undocumented individuals work, enroll in schools, stay at hospitals, and use parks. If the undocumented were not factored into census statistics, undercounted regions would not receive the necessary funding to appropriately provide public services. Schools may be too small, hospitals could become understaffed, and roads will not be redone where they are most needed. This impacts everyone in a community, not only new immigrants.

Ignoring the undocumented prevents them from assimilating into American culture. If resources are not directed to the undocumented, they may not be able to achieve the tasks needed to put them on a path to citizenship in the future. Language services

Excluding the undocumented from reapportionment would decrease participation. Fear of deportation is already a problem the Census Bureau faces, and this is despite the fact that Census data is absolutely confidential, even to other government agencies. This additional exclusion in the census would lower participation, making it harder for census workers to accurately determine the real population of the United States.

Non-citizens impact the American economy, and deserve to be valued in reapportionment. Whether an immigrant has paperwork or not, those who work pay taxes, pay social security, and join unions. The contribution of non-citizens toward the American economy makes it important for representation in Congress to reflect their presence. The undocumented are not allowed to vote, but neither are Legal Permanent Residents, many convicted felons, new refugees, or children – and you would be hard-pressed to find someone willing to argue that those groups should not be factored in to a state’s population when allocating the resources it needs.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Census 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.