Leaders worry law may affect census

Fear over a new immigration law could put one of Utah's hard-to-count groups even further out of the reach of U.S. Census Bureau workers, officials said Tuesday.

During the 2000 Census, more than 50,000 Hispanics went uncounted in Utah, and officials said connecting with undocumented residents could be even more challenging in 2010 — "especially after July 1," when SB81 goes into effect.

"There are little pockets of people that want to remain anonymous," said Robert "Archie" Archuleta, president of the Utah Coalition of La Raza. "If you're undocumented, it makes it that much more difficult."

Archuleta was one of dozens of community leaders called upon Tuesday to form Salt Lake City's "Complete Count Committee" for the 2010 Census.

A decade ago, 68 percent of Utahns responded to the census without requiring follow-up visits, said Daniel L. Pacheco, a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau.

Pacheco blamed a lack of education about the census for the low initial response.

"They don't understand it," he said. "They don't know how important it is to be counted."

Census numbers are used to allocate more than $300 billion in funds each year. That money goes toward Title I schools; Head Start programs; Women, Infants and Children food vouchers; road construction; and other programs.

Census population figures are also used in the distribution of sales-tax revenue.

In addition to the hard-to-count Hispanic communities, some 10,000 missionaries — most of them members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — went uncounted in 2000, costing Utah federal funding and a fourth congressional seat.

"We weren't very attentive to a lot of the census procedures," said Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, "and it hurt us."

Census officials plan to refocus efforts to count Utahns living in "nontraditional" settings, such as nursing homes, prisons, homeless shelters and college dormitories.

But convincing undocumented immigrants it is safe to respond to the census is a particularly daunting task this year, Archuleta said.

"SB81 is always lurking out there," he said.

SB81 creates new requirements for businesses that contract with the state to screen employees for legal presence status and calls for an immigration enforcement role for state and local law enforcement agencies.

Census officials are looking to Archuleta and other business, community and religious leaders to break down barriers between census workers and hard-to-count groups.

"If we show them the connection is not there, the fear will be alleviated," Archuleta said.

Pacheco said it is important to assure undocumented immigrants the census is safe. Census workers take an oath of confidentiality that, if broken, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, he said.

Citizenship status is "not our business, not our job to worry about that," Pacheco said.

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