Please see this announcement below from The Statewide Complete Count Committee (SCCC) and MIRA Coalition, a response to the recent White House memo regarding the counting of undocumented immigrants for the census. Here is the link to the SCCC and MIRA full response: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sMoQS0sTmiabR1rQ_N4iVKR-bmbWghOtLSqA-2N3p3Q/edit. Below is a summary of points being shared by complete count advocates.
The 2020 U.S. Census Counts EVERYONE Living in the United States
It’s Not Too Late to Get Counted!
This week, the White House released a memo suggesting that undocumented immigrants not be counted in the Census.
Groups working to make sure EVERYONE gets counted want you to know:
Any proposal not to count undocumented immigrants in the 2020 U.S. Census is unconstitutional. The 2020 U.S. Census Bureau continues to work on counting EVERYONE living in the United States.
· The U.S. Constitution says the U.S. Census counts everyone living in the United States — every immigrant, every child, every neighbor, every student, everyone — for purposes of congressional apportionment.
· The Constitution requires that the number of representatives in Congress for each state be based on the whole number of persons living in the U.S.: “Persons” means “persons,” and that means everyone.
· Non-citizens have been included in the census and for congressional representation throughout our nation’s history, including under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Your political representation should reflect what your state really looks like.
Undocumented immigrants live, work, and go to school in every state. They are even more than just inhabitants, they are a part of our communities.
It’s your right to respond to the census, and when you do, federal law strictly protects the confidentiality of your responses.
● Personal responses collected by the Census Bureau must be kept confidential for 72 years. The Census Bureau can’t share your personal information with ICE or law enforcement or any other government agency or court of law; it can’t be shared with your landlord; and it won’t affect any public benefits you receive.
● The Census Bureau takes its legal responsibility to keep personal data it collects confidential very seriously. Hundreds of community organizations and civic leaders from across the country have signed a Census Confidentiality Pledge and committed to using every tool necessary to make sure nothing interferes with that obligation.
● The Arab American Institute, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed officials (NALEO) Educational Fund have launched multilingual Census hotlines, providing census-related educational support and legal assistance for communities in more than 10 languages.
There is no citizenship or immigration status question on the 2020 Census.
You can complete the Census in just a few minutes:
ONLINE: my2020census.gov
BY PHONE: English 844-330-2020 or Spanish 844-468-2020
For additional languages, visit: 2020census.gov/languages
Phone lines open 7am – 2am EST.
