Counting Nevadans is no small job

By Timothy Pratt

Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.

When census time comes around next year, you will hardly notice it’s the federal government doing the job, David Byerman says.

“It’s more about Nevadans counting Nevadans,” adds the U.S. Census Bureau’s public face in this state.

Byerman is to announce the opening of the agency’s office in Las Vegas today, but he has been on the ground since July, trying to come to terms with a few things that make the job of keeping track of the masses in the Las Vegas Valley especially difficult.

The job is particularly important now, he notes, because Nevada may well be eligible for a fourth congressional seat. That seat would come if the Congress decides the state’s current population warrants greater representation.

Plus, there’s the money. The census creates thousands of jobs, albeit short-term. For the long haul, a more accurate count means a more accurate distribution of federal funding for roads, schools and the like.

But first, Byerman says, he has to overcome the Nevadan version of Western antipathy toward the feds.

“This is one of the states that is most hostile” to Washington, he says.

There’s the fast-growing Hispanic population, which went from 10.4 percent of the state’s population in 1990 to 19.7 percent 10 years later and is at least 25 percent today. In Clark County, the estimate is 27 percent. These figures helped keep Nevada among the nation’s top four fastest-growing states for two decades, until 2008, when it fell to eighth.

And that Hispanic population, in turn, helps place the state among the highest when it comes to the share of people who don’t speak English very well. Nevada is also among the tops in the share of people who are foreign-born.

Then there’s the fact that up to 150,000 are undocumented immigrants, many of whom are out of work since the bottom fell out of residential construction. Many are more transient than ever, as they seek work, or, they’re leaving altogether.

Finally, there’s the string of eight years of growing hostility in the nation’s populace toward undocumented immigrants, as seen in the appearance of groups such as the Minutemen. Nationwide, there are also the ongoing high-profile government raids on workplaces.

Top that off with local moves such as the recently-created partnership between immigration officials and Metro Police, which helps the federal government deport prisoners after they serve their jail time.

So, we have a large, fast-growing transient population, disconnected from and fearful of the U.S. government, but vital to gaining an accurate census count.

This, said Arcadio Bolanos, will be “the x factor” in the 2010 census. Bolanos is from Costa Rica and worked on recruiting and training staff for the 2000 census, when he was an assistant manager for the census office in Las Vegas.

The effort for the 2000 census increased Nevada’s participation rates for mail-in census forms from 60 percent in 1990 to 66 percent in 2000. That jump was tops in the nation.

He recalls recruiting a Colombian to help count a pocket of Colombians his staff discovered in a neighborhood near UNLV, making sure there was trust before explaining why it was important to be counted.

Bolanos says there’s more fear in the Hispanic community now than 10 years ago. Many Hispanic citizens have family members and friends who are illegal immigrants.

At this point, Bolanos says, “they’re just thinking, ‘Why should I help bring in more federal funds, if those funds are just going to be used to hunt down illegal immigrants?’ ”

Byerman says he’s going to meet distrust and fear by developing a massive, on-the-ground presence. He notes that the 2000 census employed 4,000 people at its peak. He’s not sure yet what that figure will be this time. But he uses terms like “local partnerships” and “recruiting in a highly diverse community” to illustrate how he plans to get the job done. Byerman underscores that Southern Nevada is getting started earlier than most places; a recent schedule included a visit with North Las Vegas councilman William Robinson, planning today’s event and training with colleagues from throughout the West.

He notes that there are few jobs in government with such a tangible effect as the U.S. census. He says he thinks about this when he gets up in the morning, drives along roads built with federal money and drops off his children — the older one of whom was born before the 2000 census — at a school built with federal money.

Then he returns to his point, and his challenge.

“I’m a federal employee. But I’m trying to downplay the federal role in all this.”