2020 census concerns in Camden — where ‘thousands’ avoided 2010 count — reflect worries nationwide

(LAN’s Jesselly De La Cruz was quoted in this article, which originally appeared on Philly.com, on the 2020 Census and the importance of counting everyone)

https://www.philly.com/news/census-2020-citizenship-jobs-new-jersey-camden-20190425.html

Protestors at the Supreme Court in Washington

Camden’s population a decade ago was 77,344, according to the 2010 census. But Mayor Francisco Moran knows that wasn’t right.

"I can tell you there are thousands of folks who have not allowed themselves to be counted,” he said at a forum Wednesday night in Camden, where local residents and statewide nonprofit groups expressed concerns about the census, which begins next March.

Communities across the country are working to make sure all their residents are counted, since population determines how the federal government distributes hundreds of billions of dollars to local governments, how voting districts are drawn, and how many seats each state gets in the U.S. House.

Local governments have formed commissions to explain the importance of filling out questionnaires and reach populations that are traditionally undercounted.

At the New Jersey Complete Count Commission’s last scheduled meeting of the year Wednesday, residents raised questions that echoed concerns expressed throughout the country. They included:

What role will the proposed citizenship question play?

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments as it decides whether the 2020 census can ask for residents’ citizenship status. The court’s conservative majority seemed willing to defer to the Trump administration’s plan to do so.

Dozens of state and local governments and the Census Bureau believe the citizenship question could deter millions of people, especially immigrants, from answering the questionnaires. That would depress population counts and diminish the political power and funding of local governments, particularly those with large immigrant populations.

Federal judges in Maryland, California, and New York — where Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Philadelphia joined others in suing the Trump administration — have ruled against the addition of the question.

The Trump administration argues that the question is necessary to know how many residents are citizens.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June.

Jesselly De La Cruz, executive director of the Latino Action Network Foundation, asked that state and local governments focus on earning the confidence of communities shaken by the prospect of the citizenship question. The Census Bureau has emphasized that federal law prohibits it from sharing personal information it collects.

Local governments are recruiting “trusted community leaders” to persuade residents to fill out census forms.

Regardless of whether the question shows up on forms next year, Census Bureau employees have said damage already has been done in terms of creating a climate of mistrust around the census.

Will the resources be available?

Peter Chen, policy counsel at Newark, N.J.-based Advocates for Children of New Jersey, noted that other states have already distributed millions of dollars to nonprofits for census outreach in their communities. He urged New Jersey to quickly get money to organizations.

"This is going to require an enormous effort,” Chen said.

Two bills introduced in the Senate and Assembly in February ask for $9 million for New Jersey groups to help get residents counted.

How will the Census Bureau reach hard-to-count communities?

Each decennial census undercounts certain populations, such as young children whom adults may not think to include, people who move often, people who are homeless, people living in poverty, and racial and ethnic minorities.

Governments across the country have been working on strategies to persuade hard-to-count populations to fill out their questionnaires. Those plans include working with faith and community leaders, translating information into many languages, collaborating with schools to teach students and parents about the census, and opening census offices in areas where participation in the past was low.

For example, in one census tract in Camden, less than one-third of residents filled out their forms in 2010. So they’re getting special attention.

Moran, Camden’s mayor, said an accurate count in Camden “is paramount to us.”

"The strain on services in the city is tough for us when we have limited resources,” he said.

Who will do the counting?

The Census Bureau plans to hire from 400,000 to 450,000 census takers to follow up with people who do not fill out their questionnaires.

Cheryl Bolden, a supervisory partnership specialist for the Census Bureau, reassured New Jersey Complete Count commissioners and residents that the bureau is hiring people to work in their own neighborhoods for these positions.

"We are totally and completely dependent upon local involvement,” she said.

Most of the bureau’s job fairs have been in North Jersey, but Bolden said more will be coming to South Jersey.

Young Immigrant Activists Cast a Wider Net

This New York Times article provides more information about the historic conference held in Kansas City, Missouri over this past weekend.  The 600 DREAMers at that conference, which included a delegation from the New Jersey DREAM Act Coalition (NJDAC), decided to expand past previous call for the passage of the DREAM Act and instead to push for broader Comprehensive Immigration Reform that would include a path to citizenship for themselves and their families. 

[Read the full article below]

Young Immigrant Activists Cast a Wider Net

Delegates on Saturday reflected in silence during the United We Dream congress for young immigrants in Kansas City, Mo.

By JULIA PRESTON

New York Times

Published: December 2, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After a boisterous three-day congress here, more than 600 leaders of a national movement of young immigrants living in the country without legal papers voted to expand beyond their past demands for citizenship for young people, and to mobilize in support of a bill to legalize 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

The leaders of the United We Dream network, the largest organization of youths here illegally, decided to push President Obama and Congress next year for legislation to open a path to citizenship for them and their families. The move will increase pressure on Mr. Obama and lawmakers to pass a comprehensive overhaul, rather than taking on the debate over immigration in smaller pieces to try to gain more support among Republicans.

The network’s platform calling for an “inclusive pathway to citizenship,” which the leaders adopted unanimously in a vote on Sunday morning, is likely to have a large influence on the debate Mr. Obama said he planned to kick off soon after his inauguration in January. The young people, who call themselves Dreamers, generally attract more sympathy from American voters than other immigrants here illegally, because most were brought to the country as children and many became activists after their illegal status thwarted their plans for college.

They take their name from the Dream Act, a bill that would create a pathway to citizenship for young people, which lawmakers on both sides of the aisle view as having a better chance than broader legalization measures. This year several Republicans, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, worked on alternative proposals that could attract support from their party. An estimated 1.7 million young immigrants would be eligible for legal status under the Dream Act.

But the youths opted to fight for broader gains, concluding that events were working in their favor after the Nov. 6 election, when Latino voters turned out in large numbers, overwhelmingly in favor of Mr. Obama.

“We have an unprecedented opportunity to engage our parents, our cousins, our abuelitos in this fight,” said Cristina Jimenez, a leader of the United We Dream organization, using the Spanish word for grandparents.

Although most of the young people who attended the conference do not have legal papers, it was a sign of their new confidence that the network held its congress in the convention center downtown, in a conservative state where most voters oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants.

In June, Mr. Obama announced two-year reprieves from deportation and work permits for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, an initiative that they saw as a victory for their protests over the past two years. Some participants here already had their reprieve documents.

For many young people, getting here was still a challenge. Some who came from California said they had taken the risk of flying for the first time, passing security with state identity documents. Others came by car from places like Florida, New York and Texas, driven by the few among them who have valid licenses.

Their decision to push for legal status for their families was intensely emotional. When they were asked at a plenary session how many had been separated by deportation from a parent or other close family member, hundreds of hands went up. They were critical of Mr. Obama for deporting more than 1.4 million people during his first term.

“When Obama is deporting all these people, separating all of our families, I’m sick and tired of that,” said Regem Corpuz, a 19-year-old student at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was born in the Philippines.

“Our families’ dreams were to get a better future,” said Ulises Vasquez of Sonoma County, Calif., “but our future is with our families together.”

On Sunday, six immigrant parents, also here illegally, joined a “coming out” ceremony where they spoke in public for the first time, as many youths have done in recent protests.

One father, Juan Jose Zorrilla, 45, who is from Mexico, recounted how he had entered the United States several times by swimming across the Rio Grande. “For parents, there is no sacrifice so large that we won’t make it for our children,” Mr. Zorrilla said. A mass of youths jumped up from their chairs to embrace Mr. Zorrilla and the other parents.

Much of the debate centered on how the movement would navigate hard realities in Washington. Opposition to legalization remains strong among Republicans, who control the House.

Network leaders said the election results, in which Mitt Romney won only 27 percent of the Latino vote, give them new influence with both parties, but particularly with Republicans.

“The Republican Party alienated Latino voters in ways they hadn’t done before,” said Lorella Praeli, a leader of the United We Dream organization. “Our leverage is that our community is growing,” Ms. Praeli said. She suggested that young immigrants ask Republicans: “Do you want your party to see the inside of the White House again?”        

DREAMers’ political coming of age: a bolder more inclusive agenda

A national group of Dreamers have just released their platform calling for citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented. A delegation from the New Jersey DREAM Act Coalition (NJDAC) travelled to Kansas City, Missouri to participate in the United We Dream 2012 National Congress. They were among the 600 DREAMer representatives that voted for an official platform with six demands, including a call for the creation of a road map to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented and an end to “senseless” deportations.

Read about them below:

DREAMers’ political coming of age: a bolder more inclusive agenda

Posted by Sandra Lilley
NBCLATINO

December 3, 2012 3:28pm

http://nbclatino.com/2012/12/03/dreamers-political-coming-of-age-a-bolder-more-inclusive-agenda/

Talk about dreaming big. What started out as a group of undocumented youth asking to be allowed to pursue higher education or work without fear of deportation has grown into a bold mandate calling for a national road map. DREAMers want citizenship not just for themselves, but for their parents, grandparents and neighbors, and are advocating for a broad, diverse coalition to make this happen.

“We strongly believe the immigrant youth movement has accomplished unprecedented power,” said Cristina Jimenez, managing director of the group United We Dream. Saying that DREAMers were instrumental in President Obama’s deferred deportation policy, as well as in encouraging large numbers of Latinos to vote in November’s election, “it really puts us in a position to be bold about our vision,” said Jimenez in a press call following a DREAMer national conference this weekend in Kansas City, Missouri.

At the United We Dream 2012 National Congress, 600 DREAMer representatives voted for an official platform with six demands. It calls for a road map to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented and an end to “senseless” deportations. It also demands the ability of undocumented immigrants to ‘travel without fear’ by ensuring access to driver’s licenses and the ability to visit family in other countries. It calls for extending state and federal financial aid opportunities for undocumented youth as well as in-state tuition rates to DREAMers, and demands an end to “excessive and costly immigration enforcement policies” such as Secure Communities, E-Verify, 287G, and roadside checkpoints.

The platform also advocates for access to health care and “safe, fair working conditions” and equal protection under the law for all. Lastly, the group wants to include more non-Latinos, as well as people of different sexual orientations, faith groups and and “differently-abled” people.

The group came out against the recent Achieve Act, a Republican-sponsored bill which would allow Dreamers to obtain visas for study or work without ensuring a pathway to citizenship. “Cynical political gestures like the Achieve Act are a step backwards,” said Lorella Praeli, United We Dream’s director of advocacy and policy. The group plans to have coordinated actions and press conferences across the country the week of President Obama’s inauguration. At the same time, United We Dream stresses it is will meet with legislators from both parties – they mentioned Democratic Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez and Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio – to press for bipartisan immigration reform in the next legislative session.

Political ‘coming of age?’

Political scientist Cristina Beltran, associate professor of social and cultural analysis and the director of Latino Studies at New York University, says the DREAMers’ platform represents a big change. ”We have been the ones talking about immigration, but now undocumented immigrants are talking to us,” says Beltran, who has written a book on Latino politics and the creation of identity. She says the DREAMers’ platform calling for more inclusion of non-Latinos, as well as people of different sexual orientations and abilities, is a smart move.

“In a way, one of the issues with the immigration debate is that it was very ‘Mexicanized’ – it was treated as a ‘Mexico’ issue,” Beltran says. ”By stressing the global nature of immigration and the fact it encompasses many different people, it keeps it from being all about ‘Latino-bashing’ and ensures more political buy-in,” Beltran explains.

“This is a group of young people who have been pretty tested, and they have seen the Dream Act fail repeatedly,” Beltran adds. “They are not naive, but young people are often bolder than their elders,and are more optimistic and less cynical,” she states. After all, Beltran says, it was the DREAMers who pushed for a deferred action policy when many in the Administration thought it would be impossible.

Some have questioned whether the recent focus on DREAMers has taken away from the larger issue of immigration. “Besides the individual level storytelling, they have not moved the debate except to focus much of the debate on them. I have a problem with that,” stated recently political scientist and Northern Arizona University professor Stephen Nuño.

Now, as the DREAMers push for a broader immigration reform agenda, the question is whether these Latino young activists will be able to successfully move the needle in the new Congress, which starts in January.

Judging from the statements today, they’re ready.

“We are gearing up for a fight – right after the Presidential inauguration,” said United We Dream’s Praeli. Saying she expects to see a bill on the floor of Congress in May, the Latina DREAMer said she expected some “really heated months” in February, March and April. ”Our strategies will be bold and new,” Praeli says.