December 4, 2017

Latino leaders worry about census count

National Institute for Latino Policy - Latino leaders are warning of a developing crisis in the 2020 census and demanding that the Census Bureau act aggressively to calm fears in immigrant populations about data misuse.

Citing focus groups and initial interviews in Texas and across the country, the bureau's Mikelyn Meyers recently reported "an unprecedented groundswell in confidentiality and data sharing concerns" related to the 2020 count.

More than 1.45 million people live in what are considered "hard-to-count" census tracts in the nine congressional districts that include Harris County, according to U.S. census data analyzed and mapped by the City University of New York's Center for Urban Research. The researchers counted tracts with response rates below 73 percent in the 2010 census as "hard to count."

Laura Murillo, president and CEO of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, noted that the Latino community has historically shied away from participating in census surveys.

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