By Ivan Pereira
Despite a major campaign effort made by the federal government, parts of Queens are lacking in their census response and the nation’s commerce secretary is pushing to improve that turnout.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke joined U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) and Census administrators at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City last Thursday and talked to civic leaders from western Queens about the importance of the 10-question survey.
Locke said $400 billion of federal funding is riding on the census and an inaccurate count would cost the borough essential money for government services.
“You could lose $2.3 million for every 100 not counted over the next 10 years,” he warned.
The secretary said the U.S. Census Bureau has already received numerous early responses from other parts of the nation, but Queens was still lagging. Boroughwide, so far only 51 percent of the population has filled in and returned their census forms, which is below the national average of 63 percent, according to Tony Farthing, the New York regional census director.
The areas that the bureau is most concerned about are Elmhurst and East Elmhurst, where there has been an influx of Latino immigrants, and Ridgewood and Middle Village, where there is a rising Polish population, Farthing said.
Although the federal government has spent millions to alert minorities about the census and urge them to fill out their forms, they still fear that answering the survey will have repercussions despite assurances to the contrary, according to Locke. The secretary said the Census Bureau will be conducting door-to-door outreach in those neighborhoods and insisted that the immigrants are not being targeted.
“Under the law, any information we receive, we don’t share it with local police, immigration or the FBI,” he said. “It’s extremely confidential.”
Crowley noted New York state has been losing congressional seats steadily since World War II because the older population has been moving down South to places like Florida, which has had an increase in congressional seats. The congressman said the influx of immigrant New Yorkers has not been enough to offset the trend because they were not counted in previous censuses.
“We are growing, but we are not keeping pace with the rest of the United States,” he said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
