Census Bureau Pressing to Get Illegal Immigrants in on Count

The stark black and white posters shout: NO INS, NO FBI, NO CIA, NO IRS. “No one outside the Census Bureau can access your personal information,” adds the fine print in Spanish and English. “That’s the law.”

Officially, the signs are aimed at “undercounted communities,” largely minority groups who fear that filling out census forms will lead to punishment.

But it’s the nation’s estimated 6 million illegal immigrants--40% of whom live in California--who are the main targets of the government ad. They, like legal residents, must be counted every 10 years under long-standing federal policy, officials said, despite complaints that illegal immigrants’ participation in the census dilutes citizens’ rights.

“Whether or not they are legal citizens . . . it’s the Census Bureau’s goal to provide as accurate a count as we can,” said Commerce Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Robert Shapiro, who oversees the agency.

Even the Immigration and Naturalization Service is supporting the count of illegal immigrants. After an eight-month push by dozens of Asian, Latino and immigrants’ rights groups nationwide, INS officials released guidelines this week to “minimize its visibility” and ensure that its enforcement activities don’t overlap with census work.

For example, INS missions that are expected to result in many arrests should, whenever possible, not be planned in residential areas during the census-taking period--from April through June--the guidelines state.

The INS stopped short of the moratorium sought by advocates, said Eun Sook Lee, director of the National Korean American Service and Educational Consortium’s West Coast office, based in Los Angeles. She said her group would work to ensure that the guidelines are strictly followed.

“We don’t want to give anybody the idea we’re hand in glove,” with the Census Bureau, said Kenneth Elwood, a top INS commissioner for field operations enforcement. “There is a firewall. Our officers are being instructed that they shall not seek or use any information that they may inadvertently receive.”

Census surveys mailed to 120 million households this week underscore an inclusive approach to the count. While requesting detailed information on respondents’ ethnic and racial backgrounds, work and incomes, the forms avoid any questions on respondents’ right to be here.

The only one that comes close asks what country the respondent is a citizen of.

The strong government push to get illegal immigrants counted is a sore point with many lawmakers and groups who favor restricting immigration, because the census is used in apportioning seats in the House of Representatives. In effect, illegal immigrants help determine the boundaries of congressional districts and the number of representatives a state gets.

“The government appears to be facilitating people’s residency in this country illegally,” said Dan Stein, executive director of the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, a member of the census advisory committee. The census posters are particularly bothersome because they imply it’s OK to break the law, he said. “People shouldn’t have a right to lie about their identities to the government.”

The group filed two lawsuits in 1979 against using counts of illegal immigrants for apportioning House seats, but the courts threw out the cases. The judges ruled, among other things, that Congress had already resolved the question decades earlier, according to Margo J. Anderson’s “The American Census, a Social History.”

The need to count illegal immigrants extends beyond apportionment, census officials added. It’s vital to ensuring that educational, health and social services are properly funded, because census data are used in the federal allocation of $175 billion each year.

“What sense would it make if we did a census and didn’t count 1,000 children of illegal immigrants who then show up for school?” Shapiro asked.

It is unclear how many illegal immigrants are likely to be counted in the next few months, census officials and immigrant advocates say.

“We know the undercount will be greater among minority groups,” Shapiro said. Yet he’s optimistic that participation by illegal immigrants will be higher than in the past, thanks to an unprecedented 17-language, $167-million ad campaign and partnerships with thousands of community-based organizations nationwide.

Still, there have been glitches, adding to illegal immigrants’ distrust and so threatening the accuracy of the count.

In Arizona last January, the local census office was inadvertently assigned to space vacated by the INS, and for a time, used the same telephone number the INS had used, officials said. The office was quickly moved.

In the last few weeks, migrant workers have reported to the California Rural Legal Assistance that INS or Border Patrol agents have raided work sites in Guadelupe and Santa Maria after listening to help wanted ads on local Spanish radio. The station also broadcast census ads, officials said.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the western region of the INS, denied that any raids had occurred in those communities.

There is no way census data would make its way into INS hands, not that they even need it, Elwood added. “There isn’t any office that doesn’t know where alien populations exist. . . . It’s almost redundant for us.”

That sentiment was echoed by some sweatshop workers in the Los Angeles garment district recently, many of whom said they had heard about the census on radio and television.

“Yes, I’m going to cooperate with the census. Why not?” asked Martha Castillo, 37, barely looking up from the mound of elegant black evening dresses she was sewing. “If they wanted to deport me and my children, they could have done it through school documents and other forms. They already have all my information.”

“If we don’t make ourselves count, they won’t make us count,” said Daniel Perez, 24, reciting a refrain similar to those used in the Census 2000 ad campaign.

The workers were divided, however, on whether the suspension announced by the INS of neighborhood raids during the census count would encourage more participation.

Perez said.

Alba Chavez, 21, shared his skepticism.

“Who is to say that INS won’t use the information after the census” is done? she asked

But Chavez said that her family would cooperate with the census takers because of what it could mean in services, especially for her little brothers and sisters.

Besides, deporting all the workers like her wouldn’t make sense, because “who would they find to do this kind of work? Who would they exploit so?

“The truth is, based on what I’ve seen on TV, it looks like a good idea to participate” in the census.

Times staff writer Hector Becerra contributed to this story.