THEIR VIEW

Politics threaten to undermine Census

The following editorial appeared in the St Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday.

Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution requires an “enumeration” of the population every 10 years. Since 1790, the federal government has duly conducted its decennial census.

Now politics are threatening to undermine the accuracy of the 2010 population count. These distractions must be vanquished, and the important mission of counting everyone must remain the focus.

Census numbers are used to dole out federal dollars and apportion political districts large and small. Census data are used to divvy up $300 billion a year among state and local governments.

A complete count is vital for metro areas, which have large minority and immigrant populations that made up much of the estimated 3 million people nationwide who weren’t counted in 2000. A complete count is particularly important for slow-growing states with congressional districts at stake.

Census Day is next April 1, right at the start of spring. But divisive political posturing already is in bloom.

Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Bob Bennett, RUtah, want census takers to ask everyone about citizenship and immigration status. Their goal is to keep undocumented immigrants out of the count, thus keeping them from influencing the flow of dollars and political seats.

But millions of census forms have been printed and are being printed, one reason that the Vitter-Bennett amendment to the census appropriation is a long shot. Good. It would inject the volatile topic of immigration reform into a neutral, government-officiated process.

William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Information policy, Census and National Archives, said the Vitter- Bennett bill was “just politics” because Vitter is concerned that Hurricane Katrina has caused his home state’s population to decline.

On the left, the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders has called for immigrants to boycott the census count to make a political statement in support of immigration reforms that would help the undocumented to become legalized. Fortunately, other Hispanic and leading immigrants’ rights groups have denounced talk of a boycott as counterproductive and political suicide.

Immigrants are among the most difficult groups to count. Language, educational and cultural barriers and immigration status often cause them to be wary. Urging them to shun the census would be a self-inflicted wound.

The Census Bureau will launch a massive media campaign in January under the theme “It’s in Our Own Hands.” The multilingual, multicultural initiative will urge millions to complete their census forms.

Combustible rhetoric from the political fringes about the census count should be rejected. It should be an apolitical pursuit of a clean, complete count to benefit all Americans, regardless of politics.