NYS Attorney General Letitia James urges immigrants to embrace census
NEW York State Attorney General, Letitia James, has encouraged people who have not filled up their census to do so as soon as possible.
The 2020 census deadline is September 30
While speaking at a news conference on Tuesday September 1, 2020, James assured immigrants that no immigration questions would be asked.
“New York State is not keeping up with the national rate of people filling up the census.
“We must do better. People should know that there are no immigration status questions asked.
“The responses are confidential. Everyone must be counted. I encourage everyone to go and fill out the census forms.It is very important that all are counted,” James said.
Representative for New York’s 10th Congressional District, Jerry Nadler, said the Supreme Court struck out immigration status questions on the census forms and urged people to fill out the forms, failure to which New York State may lose congressional seats.
“Immigration status does not count. If we don’t get an accurate count of the numbner of people living in New York State, our state may lose congressional seats.
“Participation in the census is more important than ever. If we don’t get accurate count, things will be made worse.
“Response rate only 60 per cent in New York. That is a disaster,” said Congressman Nadler.
Congressman Nadler said a lot needed to be done to increase responses towards the census especially in lower Manhattan.
New York immigration coalition and census 2020 senior fellow Meeta Anand said the census should be about respect.
“The census was turned into fear and intimidation with the citizenship question which sent out fear to immigrants. Census is about respect.
“The Trump administration is denying us to truly express who we are.
“Our ability to rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic is dependent on the census. We owe it to people most affected to ensure they’re counted,” Anand said.
NY state at 61.2 per cent response and that’s number 36 in the country. Response rate are lower in communities where the low income people live.
“Trump administration trying to make sure we don’t count those vulnerable communities. We will do everything we can to ensure every New Yorker is counted,” Anand added.
New York City 2020 census director Julie Menin said there is a ploy to defund New York City and move the money to Republican states across the country.
“There are attempts to undercount NYC. We need New Yorkers to stand up and say this matters to our city in this COVID era we live in. We can’t afford to let go of millions of dollars available for us,” said Menin.
Meanwhile, Manhattan borough president, Gale Brewer, said it was a constitutional responsibility of everyone to fill out the census forms.
“Census filling only takes 10 minutes. There is billions of dollars at stake.
“Fill out the forms for your children. We owe it to our community to fill out the 2020 census,” pleaded Brewer.
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