Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

GUEST COLUMN:

It’s everyone’s right and duty to be counted

Maria Teresa Kumar

Courtesy

Maria Teresa Kumar

The 2020 census may be the most critical in living memory. It will determine not only our congressional apportionment for the next 10 years and the reallocation of federal taxes for communities, but also where companies choose to create jobs. If the Latinx community is to continue on its path to full political realization, participating in the census is essential.

This year, our community is officially the second-largest voting bloc in the United States. There are 16 million Americans who live in mixed-status families. Knowing this, the Trump administration attempted to subvert the objective nature of the census with a contrived citizenship question. Luckily, the Supreme Court struck down this aim to create “non-Hispanic, white Republican districts” through discouraging Latinx census participation. President Donald Trump’s aim to undercount us is all about political power—who wields it and who he defines as American. The court found that his premise—to deter people living within our borders from participating in the census and thus undermining suitable electoral representation—violated the law. His attempts to stack the cards against one community in favor of another erodes the underpinnings of a functioning democracy.

Despite this president’s attempts to silence our political voice, we will fight back to ensure that our community has a voice and that tax dollars are correctly disbursed to communities. Among other things, the census helps define where $620 billion in federal funding is allocated each year. Our community—in which the average age is 19—cannot afford to leave money earmarked for schools, roads, health care, etc., on the table. Elements within our government have waged war on the Latinx community, and the census is one of the best defenses we have to safeguard our future.

Under the Constitution, every person in the United States is expected to take part in the census. That includes undocumented people. The undocumented community serves as one of the backbones of our economy, working and paying $27 billion per year in federal and state taxes. Our undocumented neighbors pay $13 billion yearly in Social Security—a program into which they invest but will never be able to collect against. They must be counted fully and accurately for us to have a functioning government. Anyone—including the president—who attempts to stop the undocumented community from taking part in the census must be held to full account for threatening a constitutionally mandated endeavor.

For every parent who fails to count her child, there will be a student without a desk on the first day of school. For every voter who skips it, they may then be packed into a congressional district that does not represent them or their community. For every municipality, town or city that does not communicate the necessity of participation, they will see federal funding dry up and may not be able to make ends meet, depriving their residents of lifesaving and necessary services.

In the three most Latinx-populated counties in Nevada, less than half of the people have taken the census. In Humboldt County, which has the second-largest Latinx population in the state, only 35% of folks have completed the census. Overall, only 41% of Nevadans have participated to date.

The census is on all of us. We must all take part and then encourage, prod and beg everyone we know to do so as well. Our country can only function if it accurately represents every person within it. A complete and precise census count is a major tool in doing so. It is our right and our duty to be counted. We will not let anyone stop us.

Maria Teresa Kumar is CEO of Voto Latino.

This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.