Road Show Tries to Ease Census Fears

He came from Washington, D.C., to give them his personal guarantee.

Filling out a census form this spring will not bring Big Brother to anyone’s door. It won’t lead to deportations, arrests or tax audits. No employee from any other government agency can look at the completed surveys, at least not for 72 years, according to federal law.

Even the messenger, Kenneth Prewitt, director of the U.S. Census Bureau that conducts the nationwide decennial count, faces $5,000 in fines and five years in jail if he were to divulge any personal information.

“We have to count on you to get people to believe it. We can say it, but they won’t believe us just because we are the government,” he told about 100 representatives of immigrant and minority neighborhoods throughout the South Bay.

Convincing people will not be easy, the representatives said. One Samoan leader estimated that if the census were held today, fewer than two-thirds of his people would fill it out. Even those people who are in this country legally worry about what will happen if they write down names of family members who aren’t.

The Friday meeting at Carson Community Center was organized by U.S. Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Carson). Her heavily immigrant district was among the five worst undercounted congressional districts in the nation during the previous census. Two others in that group also are in Los Angeles County, she said.

“It will take a good census to figure out where we are, where we are going as a country,” Prewitt said. “The stakes are very, very high.”

Nationwide, the 1990 survey missed more than 4 million people, many of whom refused to send in their forms or didn’t receive them. Children, minorities and immigrants made up most of the undercount, which cost California many millions of dollars in federal funding, in addition to a congressional seat.

In 2001, California could gain two congressional seats, provided the upcoming count is accurate, Millender-McDonald said.

Ensuring that will be anything but easy. Census officials foresee a higher undercount in the upcoming survey, in part because of a more mobile, immigrant-rich populace. Only about 61% of Americans are expected to respond, compared to two-thirds a decade ago.

Prewitt has been on the road for much of the past three months, heading north to Alaska’s Arctic, east to Puerto Rico and west to California, meeting with people who are more likely to be missed. On Saturday, he flew to Texas to visit shantytowns near Brownsville’s Mexican border, home to large pockets of illegal immigrants.

Prewitt said the bureau has received approval to hire noncitizens who are in this country legally to help conduct the count, further bridging language and cultural barriers.

“There’s never been a census like this,” he said. Even the form has undergone numerous modifications reflecting the nation’s growing racial and ethnic tapestry.

Besides the option of getting forms in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or Tagalog, respondents for the first time can check off as many racial categories as they want to reflect their makeup. Ten percent of Californians under age 18 may turn up as multiracial, officials predict.

A new category--Hawaiian and Pacific Islander--also was added to the form, Prewitt said.

Those changes don’t go far enough, complained Compton Mayor Omar Bradley, who attended the meeting. The new form continues to lump too many different peoples into single categories, he said, such as putting residents of myriad Latino backgrounds into Hispanic, black or white.

“Does a Puerto Rican have the same identity as a Salvadoran? I don’t think so,” Bradley said. Not identifying people more narrowly in the survey makes it impossible to tailor government programs to meet their needs, he said.

The form is not perfect, Prewitt agreed, adding that more categories are likely to be included in future surveys. But adding too many could skew minority numbers, especially if white respondents identify themselves as white rather than by their heritage.

The Census 2000 form includes a space for respondents to write in their ethnicity or race if they choose, Prewitt said.

More important is to actually start spreading the census message, said Tua’au Pele Faletogo, a Samoan leader who serves on various local census committees.

“We need to get out there and alleviate people’s fears,” he said. “It’s time to stop talking and start walking.”