UNDOCUMENTED FILIPINO IMMIGRANTS URGED
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 2010 U.S. CENSUS
By DAVID CASUCO
CITY OF INDUSTRY— Filipino-American service organizations and other cause-oriented groups launched over the weekend “Together We Can in 2010,” an effort they hope will establish a comprehensive Fil-Am count for the United States Census 2010.
Featured speakers for the event include Deputy Consul General Daniel Espiritu of the Philippine Consulate General; Ditas Katague, Census Director from the office of Gov. Schwarzenneger; and James T. Christy, Regional Director, Los Angeles Regional Census Director.
Deputy Consul Espiritu pointed out the great statistical discrepancy between the official count and the actual population of Filipinos in Los Angeles. He said that the understated count only shows 300,000 Filipino expats in Los Angeles. The Catholic Archdiocese however, claims that there are 800,000 Fil-Ams living in L.A. and its unincorporated cities.
Fear, misconception, and apathy are seen as formidable roadblocks to the count, they say. For undocumented immigrants, the Census presents as something that is unsettling, even scary. Another intermediate group — Filipinos who are here in American on temporary working visa, do not think they should be included in the count, a misconception that needs to be cleared. Also scored was the general apathy of the Filipinos when it comes to civics and participatory democracy.
Christy, for his part, stressed the importance of the Census saying, “It’s the new portrait of America. What we are doing here is critical in establishing the legacy of Filipino-Americans in California.” He added that undocumented immigrants need not worry because there is a Federal law that secures the information that the Census collects. “It’s simple, safe, and important,” he said.
According to the law, the Census Bureau cannot show or share the information and the responses given by the people to anyone, including other Federal agencies and law enforcement entities. Anybody who breaks this law gets a five-year jail term and a fine of $250,000.
Aside from being safe, the Census questionnaire is easy. It has only 10 questions and it requires only 10 minutes to complete.
Just what is the Census anyway? According the Census flyers extensively distributed all over the city, it is a count of everyone residing in the United States. Both citizens and non-citizens have to be counted,
For more information about the 2010 Census, visit 2010census. gov.
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