From: The Daily Bulletin

A coalition of Latino politicians is launching a media campaign and encouraging elected Latino officials to convince their constituents to fill out census forms.

And in an effort to combat criticism that they have neglected counting minority communities in the past, the U.S. Census Bureau this year will run an advertising campaign in 27 languages, including Spanish, asking residents to be counted, U.S. Commerce Department Undersecretary Rebecca Blank told a recent meeting of Latino leaders.

In addition, census forms will for the first time be provided in both English and Spanish.

“Latinos account for half the population growth in the United States,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

“Every 15 seconds a person is added to the United States. Every 30 seconds that person is Latino. You cannot have a successful census if you don’t fully count the Latino community,” Vargas said.

The census is going to be NALEO’s “priority and obsession” for the next year, Vargas said during the organization’s annual conference. That conference, held in Los Angeles, ended Saturday.

The census is used to determine boundaries of congressional districts, help divvy up federal resources and provide a snapshot of the country.

NALEO members are concerned the census count of Latinos will be low because illegal immigrants traditionally fear census officials.

Supreme Court cases have guaranteed census information cannot be shared with any other federal agency, including immigration and tax officials, Blank said.

The Census Bureau has hired thousands of “community partners” to team up with local organizations in an effort to overcome cultural barriers that often challenge the count.

NALEO’s push is facing an added challenge from a group of Latino evangelical ministers. The government denies illegal immigrants resources and the ability to vote, they claim. They are urging Latinos to boycott the census.

“This boycott is so ill-informed,” Blank said. “You only hurt your own community if you are not counted in the census. You will not have the resources for your schools, you will not have the resources for your voting districts.”

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