U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves speaks in Laredo on Monday. (Photo: RGG/Bill Rovira)

LAREDO, Feb. 2 – U.S. Census Bureau Director Dr Robert Groves made a visit to one the most impoverished of the Laredo colonias, San Carlos in an effort to promote the importance of being counted in the census.

Standing in front of a colonia home without running water, Groves emphasized that only through the accurate counting of all populations, immigrant or not, citizen or non-citizen, can the nation begin to address the deficiencies that San Carlos, other Laredo area colonias, and underserved communities throughout the United States face and will continue to suffer if they are not properly counted.

“There are areas all over the country that present special challenges, neighborhoods in big cities where for personal safety concerns people are afraid to open their doors. There are isolated language groups that present their own challenges. There are areas where rich people live that are walled off and locked down,” Groves said.

Groves said that through the work of promotoras he was learning a lot today about how his agency can make the census work for the residents of San Carlos. Groves also reassured colonia residents that the information they provide on the census forms cannot be accessed by Border Patrol.

“I am here to learn about San Carlos and to convey the message that the survey cannot harm those participating because we have very strong laws protecting the confidentiality of the data that you provide,” Groves said. “Information on the census form cannot be given to any other agency of the federal government. In fact if the President asked me for you census form I could say, ‘no, you can’t get it.’ If I violate that law I can go to prison for five years and have a $50,000 dollar fine.”

Asked about the 2000 census undercount, at a national level Groves responded, “the net undercount, some people not getting counted at all some getting counted multiple times is estimated at approximately one percent (nation-wide) after all is said and done.”

Ana Maria Garcia from U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s office commented on families in the San Carlos colonia having to pay $15 dollars every other day to have water delivered by truck to their homes. “That is the importance of every one in the United States being counted. Running water in their homes, paved streets, those are all products of first being counted. Senator Cornyn strongly believes that this is not about immigration but about every American being counted,” Garcia said.

Jenna Stormann of the Dallas office of the U.S. Census Bureau said Laredo area colonias presented some greater challenges than colonia populations of the Rio Grande Valley. “Laredo colonias are more spread out than Valley colonias. That would be the greatest difference. The fact that census forms this year are bilingual should be helpful in getting a more accurate count than in 2000,” Stormann said.

Gabriel Sanchez, regional director for the Census Bureau, said the fact that the census comes out every ten years presents a new learning opportunity each time. “The challenges in either the Laredo area or in the Rio Grande Valley are similar. The language barrier and insulation of colonia population’s present common challenges in either area,” said Sanchez. The regional director also emphasized the importance of hiring census takers from the colonias who know “which dogs bite and where the roads are bad.”

Promotora Iliana Raz, a 15-year resident of San Carlos said that the key to colonia populations participating in the survey is the employment of colonia residents to do the survey. “I myself am applying for a position. It is essential in a colonia that the residents know and trust the census-taker before they are likely to cooperate,” Raz said.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, represents the people of San Carlos in Congress. Speaking in Spanish, he said it is vital that every colonia resident be counted.

“That is why the Census Bureau is trying to employ people from the colonias who know the colonias and their people to be involved as census-takers. Colonia residents need to be aware that their participation in the census will not bring the Border Patrol to their doors but will allow them to be counted in order to eventually receive the services that they are lacking,” Cuellar said.

The presence of Groves in Laredo shows just how much the Census Bureau is focusing on the colonias this time around, Cuellar said. He noted that this is the first time that the census is available in Spanish and English, intimating that the extra attention to detail employed by the Census this year should lead to greater success in 2010.

Groves and Cuellar both answered questions and concerns from colonia residents, including a question from a resident about the lack of running water in San Carlos. “We have paid our part, we have been promised over and over again but we still have our water brought in by truck,” said a San Carlos colonia resident. Webb County Commissioner for Precinct Two, Rosaura “Wawi “Tijerina quickly responded: “That is exactly why we have to be counted in the census. So that it is demonstrated what the needs are in colonias like yours and how many people have to live in these conditions.

At the press conference prior to the San Carlos colonia visit, Terry Elena Ordaz, vice president and general manager of Univision, Telefutura, Fox, and LATV channels in Laredo pleaded with Groves for greater funding of television public service announcements promoting the census to Spanish speaking households.

“We the local media are committed to the community. But we can only do so much. We need some help from them (the Census Bureau) as well. Right now we are in a political timeline. We are the only media that has been pushing from the very beginning. We know that they have some funds available but they were made available primarily for McAllen and El Paso. Laredo, Zapata and Eagle Pass were bypassed. We were extremely undercounted in the 2000 census. Our population was counted as only 170,000 and yet we have the third largest school district in Texas. Look at the roads in Laredo. It is hard to get the funds we need for schools, roads, and hospitals as long as we continue to be so severely undercounted,” commented Ordaz.

Groves responded: “The Hispanic population is targeted for special attention in this survey because it was undercounted in the last census. The advertising funds for Laredo have national components and local components. You never have enough money available. I understand when you say that local media has a deep share of the local market. It’s just that when monies are allocated you have to have cutoffs between local and nationally targeted messages.”

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