By Nikki P.
Published: November 11, 2009
Categorized in | Opinion
By Nicole Park
Daily Titan Staff Writer
The new year is quickly approaching, and with it an updated population count, courtesy of the 2010 census. The nationwide survey accounts for every person living in the United States and Puerto Rico by delivering census forms to each household via the U.S. Postal Service.
In an attempt at accuracy, census workers are later sent out to homes where responses were not received from in order to record the number of inhabitants. Every bureau worker has been sworn to secrecy for life and has taken an oath of nondisclosure upon appointment to keep the collected information private and for statistical use by the bureau alone. The answers are not permitted to be shared with the IRS, FBI, CIA, INS or any other agency, governmental or not. This is to gain a true depiction of the population with honest answers, free of inhibition.
By answering 10 basic questions about each household in less than 10 minutes and mailing back the questionnaire, residents participate in a necessary national head count that helps determine what areas need schools, senior centers, emergency services, hospitals and services for the elderly and disabled.
The question of gender has been asked since the first census was taken, and the results are used to fund and implement equality practices. Age is another requirement of the census; the results determine senior citizen care, social security forecasts, funding for programs for children and estimates future births by finding the number of women of child-bearing age.
Race is asked to better fund specific programs for minority groups. However, question eight of the survey picks out one ethnic group in particular. It asks, “Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin?” While it does seem a little odd, Latinos are the fastest-growing ethnic group, and the bureau stands by its intention to fund bilingual programs.
With bill HR 2847, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter hoped to bully the United States Census Bureau into adding one more question: “Are you a United States citizen?”
Vitter, a Republican fundamentalist, doesn’t want to know how to better serve different ethnic communities or foster education in English, he wants to know which pile of surveys to shred. Not only does the number of people living here determine how money is allocated, but the survey results are also instrumental in reapportioning the House of Representatives every decade.
Vitter doesn’t want to count illegals anymore because California, in close proximity to Mexico, is at an advantage in the House while, he says, Louisiana is at a disadvantage because it is not a destination for undocumented aliens.
I laughed as I watched Vitter on CNN’s “American Morning” on Nov. 5. He justified his ludicrous bill by saying, “We don’t put the population of France into the count or the population of Brazil, so why would we factor in non-citizens in determining how many U.S. House members every state gets?”
Where to begin? The entire population of France or Brazil wouldn’t be included in our census because those citizens are in those countries. We count illegal aliens because they are physically here right now.
Trying to make it seem absurd to count people who are presently here; partaking in American life and using community, state and federal resources; and trying to liken that to including whole countries’ populations is insulting to the intelligence of all.
California cannot contain the problem of illegal immigration alone. The state already must foot the bill for many illegals. USImmigrationSupport.org states that there are an estimated three million undocumented people in California alone. So Vitter thinks California residents should not only suffer by sharing their state and its resources with illegals, but should also suffer again by losing representation in the House. The senator should be thankful he doesn’t have to deal with such a big and tough issue; he should shut up and let us at least benefit from the simple head count.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform projects the cost of illegal immigrants for California taxpayers to be $10.5 billion annually. This includes money spent for incarceration, education and health care.
Illegal immigrants have always been counted in the census because they are people living within U.S. borders and, thus, must be accounted for. This is not a question of agreement or disagreement with illegal aliens, deportation or immigration reform. It seems quite simple that everyone in our country, regardless of who they are or where they hail from, must be counted, for logistical purposes if nothing more. We need to know what we’re dealing with. How much has the population grown since 2000? How many people are nearing retirement? How many children are projected to be born this year? What is the updated ethnic breakdown of our diverse land?
In a 60-39 vote, Vitter’s bill was struck down. The bill called for the halt of federal funding for the billions of dollars the census requires unless the citizenship question was asked.
“I am disappointed that my colleagues in the Senate chose to block this common sense amendment that could prevent Louisiana and several other states from losing a congressional seat following the 2010 census,” Vitter stated in a press release on his Web site, following the voting results on Nov. 5.
Both Democrat senators from California, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, voted against “Bitter Vitter.” Not only did some Democrats call the bill unconstitutional, but Groves said it was way too late to make a change to the census questions. At the time, 400 million forms had already been printed. The one-question change would have cost taxpayers millions.
For all the passion Vitter demonstrated on CNN and on his Web site, he sure took his time in the past 10 years bringing the bill up for debate.
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8 Responses to “Louisiana senator fails to keep immigrants out of 2010 census”
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Our Government, past & present, Republican & Democrat, have allowed the invasion of 20 to 30 million criminals and uneducated peons which is the largest invasion of any Nation, at any time, by any means & in direct violation of Article IV, Section IV of our Constitution.
This refusal to abide by our Constitution or enforce our Immigration Laws should be classified as Treason of the most foul kind, & as grounds for impeachment & trials for Treason!
Not only have they allowed the invasion, they force American tax payers to pay Billions on Billions of dollars to provide Welfare, Prison cells, Educate the invaders numerous children, and free medical care, at the same time the invading horde break numerous laws and massive document fraud, & are destroying our schools, hospitals, communities, culture and standard of living while Robbing, Raping, Killing & Assaulting American Citizens WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Counting illegals in the Census disenfranchises legal, taxpaying American citizens. It is a huge injustice to American citizens. This childish editorial totally misses the point. It sounds like it as written by an ignorant college student who neither pays taxes, supports a family nor supports a mortgage — which apparently it was. Once you start assuming adult responsibilities you will soon understand how unfair it is to disenfranchise legal taxpaying citizens for the sake of the interests of foreign lawbreakers.
To the poster above, your comments are rude and baseless. It’s quite childish to attack the writer and a huge assumption to claim she doesn’t have a job or support her family. This poster must have lost out on oodles of undesireable jobs to more qualified illegals if she’s grown so bitter over an article. Which, btw, she totally missed the point of.
I didn’t miss the point of anything BBQ, and I have a well-paying job, thank you very much. It is quite true that idealistic college students don’t have a handle on what’s going on in the real world, so they have the luxury to write immature blather such as Nicole’s.
It is simply not fair to disenfranchise American taxpayers so that foreign lawbreakers can effectively vote themselves taxpayer-paid largess, courtesy of those same disenfranchised taxpayers.
Now come up with a rational argument disputing that, not an attack on my earnings capabilities. Oh wait, you can’t, can you?
Respectfully: Congratulations that you have a job that pays well, especially in an economy that has seen better days. But back to the matter at hand, the point of this article is an objective, real fact, simply stating that citizens, be they legal or otherwise, shall be counted in the census. It’s not saying “We, as ‘disenfranchised’ American taxpayers, should contribute an additional 5% to fund illegal activity”… that would certainly lend itself a different topic, one that I think you may have perhaps blurred.
Many of us have differing opinions when it comes to taboo subjects, such as politics, religion, money, sex, etc… However, writing rude, subjective opinions to whom you’ve probably never met only furthers your immaturity, not the author’s.
ventiwaters: I fail to see what is objective about Ms. Park’s article. She describes Vitter’s bill as “ludicrous” when it is in fact a common sense response to a serious injustice, i.e. the disenfranchisement of American taxpayers by foreign lawbreakers. (And nowhere does Ms. Park acknowledge that Americans are being disenfranchised by the political reapportionment of congressional seats to illegal-heavy states.)
This is not exactly a paragon of logical thinking or objectiveness either:
“California cannot contain the problem of illegal immigration alone. The state already must foot the bill for many illegals. USImmigrationSupport.org states that there are an estimated three million undocumented people in California alone. So Vitter thinks California residents should not only suffer by sharing their state and its resources with illegals, but should also suffer again by losing representation in the House. The senator should be thankful he doesn’t have to deal with such a big and tough issue; he should shut up and let us at least benefit from the simple head count.”
California has an illegal immigration problem because numerous counties and cities in our state have declared themselves “sanctuaries” for illegals in contravention of federal law. Why should Louisiana or any other state suffer from California’s foolishness? They had nothing to do with our sanctuaries and numerous taxpayer-financed giveaways to illegals. Why should taxpayers in Louisiana or any other state help foot the bill with federal tax relief for California’s short-sightedness, over which they had no control? And how is California going to “benefit” from a simple head count of our numerous illegals? We will get more Congressional seats, sure, but these will all go to extreme liberals who support illegal immigration, amnesty and tax-payer financed giveaways to illegals, which will simply make California’s budget and illegal immigration problems even worse.
I fail to see how my response to Ms. Park’s article was immature. Given that hers is sprinkled with childish insults like “Republican fundamentalist”, rude remarks about “Bitter Vitter” and other contemptuous sneers, I thought my remarks were in fact rather temperate by comparison.
Adjudicating the 20 to 30 million illegal immigrants in the Decennial Census is a travesty of our laws. It makes them de-facto legitimate, which is a blemish on US citizenship and those who jumped federal obstacles to come here legally. Not only will it serve small states of fed dollars, instead give 5-6 billion dollars to states with illegal–SANCTUARY–policies. It will also give states with massive illegal populations, more representation in Washington?
Those who believe in America’s survival, without OVERPOPULATION as stated by the US Census bureau better read facts, not the lies at NUMBERSUSA. Those who want details of corruption in WASHINGTON and state government go to JUDICIAL WATCH. Overpopulation, traffic hell should go to CAPSWEB. Other sites of interest on Immigration enforcement is ALIPAC and AMERICAN PATROL. We the people have the ultimate power to throw out anti-sovereignty incumbent politicians. Call and command these do-nothings to–STOP–this facade at 202-224-3121.
Isn’t Vitter the one who bought prostitutes left and right? Yet another racist disgusting hypocrite. Why is this mistake of nature in the United States Senate? I pray that Vitter, Jeff Sessions and Jim DeMint be deported back in time to pre-Civil War America. This is no longer a good’ole boy America!