The Uncounted : San Fernando Looks for Way to Include Its ‘Hidden Population’ in 1990 Census

If city officials and census employees aren’t careful, Juan Hernandez might become one of the “uncounted” of San Fernando.

Hernandez doesn’t have a permanent job. Since coming to the United States from Mexico four years ago, he has earned his living a day at a time, finding menial jobs for $4 or $5 an hour as a day laborer on a Sylmar street corner.

His living situation isn’t stable either. A few months ago, Hernandez, 30, and his Guatemalan girlfriend lived in a North Hollywood apartment. But they were evicted. Unable to come up with a rent deposit, they lived in a series of motels until a friend offered them a room in a small house on Lucas Street in San Fernando.

Despite his problems, Hernandez finds some consolation in the fact that he has avoided arrest and deportation by “ la migra ,” (Spanish slang for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service).

Problem for City

The success of Hernandez and other immigrants at eking out a living in San Fernando and avoiding contact with the immigration authorities presents a problem for San Fernando city officials, who are trying to ensure that all city residents are counted when the U.S. Bureau of the Census conducts its decennial tally of the population in April, 1990.

The immigrants tend to shy away from census officials as well as the INS, even though the information provided to census workers is confidential. After the 1980 census was completed, city officials said the bureau’s inability to count the city’s “hiddenpopulation” led San Fernando to be under-counted by as much as 10%.

They believe that as many as 3,000 of the city’s 20,000 residents are illegal immigrants--the exact number remains something of a mystery. Hoping for an accurate count in next year’s tally, a committee of city officials and community activists was formed last month to act as a liaison between the city and the bureau. The committee plans to launch a campaign later this year to educate San Fernando residents about the importance of the census.

At stake for the city are hundreds of thousands of dollars in state and federal funds. City Administrator Donald Penman said the city receives about $44,000 in state and county funds for each 1,000 residents counted in the census. And any federal community development grants the city receives in the coming decade will be distributed according to census figures--the funds are used to rehabilitate housing and parks and to repave streets.

“If we can prove there are more people living in converted garages, then we’ll get funding for low- to moderate-income housing,” said Jess Margarito, a San Fernando city councilman and a community awareness specialist with the census bureau. “If we are under-counted, we will go without for the next decade.”

Difficult Project

Census officials agree that counting the immigrant population is difficult. “Historically, we have under-counted minority persons,” said Jerry Wong, an information specialist with the bureau. “Our fear now is that those persons who are undocumented and did not qualify for the amnesty program will be driven further underground.”

Indeed, city officials say that if they are to get an accurate count of the city’s population, they will have to reach deep into San Fernando’s barrio, where the immigrants’ deep-seated fear and distrust of the authorities has been worsened by the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.

Many illegal immigrants had an opportunity to become legal residents through the amnesty program created by the law. But the act also established penalties against those who hire illegal immigrants and has led to increased INS efforts to oust illegal immigrant workers.

The distrust is evident even at St. Simon’s Episcopal Church, where Juana Mojica and other church volunteers distribute 45-pound boxes of groceries to about 150 needy families from San Fernando and other East Valley communities every Wednesday.

Those who pick up the groceries are asked to fill out a brief form but often give incorrect information, Mojica said. “We ask them how many people live in the house, and they don’t tell us the truth because they’re scared,” Mojica said. “They’ll say three people are living in the house, but then later we find out it’s seven.”

Mojica, who is a member of the city’s census committee, said she plans to buy some tennis shoes so she can canvass the barrio streets and talk to people about the census. She did a little of that work one day last week, talking to people waiting in line for the food distribution.

Fill Out Form

Ana Rosa Lopez, a 30-year-old native of Mexico City, told Mojica she would fill out her census form and even offered to volunteer for the campaign. “Why should we be afraid of the authorities?” she asked. “We’re all human beings, and we have the right to live where we want.”

Among San Fernando’s immigrants, Lopez is a relatively long-term resident--she came to the city in 1976. She forms part of an informal support network that has helped hundreds adjust to life in Southern California after making the trip across the border from Mexico and Central America to San Fernando in the past decade.

Lopez said she has given temporary shelter to at least a dozen friends and relatives over the years. Some, she said, have lived in a room in her garage. “They put up more walls and fences at the border to keep them out, but more of them keep coming across,” she said in Spanish. “What can you do? One way or another, they’re going to keep on coming.”

Once they receive the form, the immigrants will be asked about family members, which will undoubtedly make some feel uncomfortable. For example--”How well does this person speak English?,” “How many babies has she ever had, not counting stillbirths?” and “Does this person have a physical, mental or other health condition that has lasted for six or more months. . . .?”

Strictly Confidential

Census officials stress that the information is confidential. “No one has access to any personal information except census employees, and they’re sworn to secrecy,” Wong said.

A complete count of the ever-growing immigrant population will provide city officials with a valuable statistical portrait of the city’s immigrants, including their housing conditions and income.

Some San Fernando community advocates expect the census to show that many of San Fernando’s residents are among the “working poor”--such as Carmen Rodriguez, a 54-year-old Salvadoran housekeeper. After divorcing her husband in El Salvador, Rodriguez came to the United States in 1977 and raised five children as a single mother. Her youngest son, 23, moved out recently, and she now lives alone, supplementing her income each week with free groceries from St. Simon’s.

Rodriguez said she earns about $30 to $40 a day cleaning houses in Canoga Park and Sylmar. “I have to look for a way to earn a living,” she said. “I work a little here, a little there, so I can pay the rent and the light bill. Sometimes I have to pick up cans from the street to pay the light bill.”

Rodriguez hopes her tribulations will end soon. She has nearly completed the English and civics classes necessary for amnesty and soon will become a legal resident.

Hundreds of San Fernando residents such as Rodriguez have applied for amnesty at St. Simon’s Church and at Immigration Services of Santa Rosa, where instructor Ruben Coronado Salcedo helps them complete the program’s required English and civics classes.

Coronado said he will most likely help some of his students complete census questionnaires since they already have asked him for help with other forms. “Sometimes they come up to me with job applications and tax forms and ask me, ‘Maestro, can you help me with this?’ ”

The experience of the amnesty program might make the task of the city’s census committee easier. Many civic and church groups helped immigrants apply for the amnesty program. Mojica said the same groups might work on the census problem, setting up centers in churches where volunteers will help people fill out questionnaires.

“People trust the church,” she said. “That’s why they came out for the amnesty. They told themselves ‘Here la migra won’t get me.’ ”