The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

In this report:

Reasons for Continued Concern

It is clear that there are significant challenges to an accurate census count in the Gulf Coast region still recovering from Katrina and its aftermath.  One reason is simply recent history based on the difficult characteristics of the region.⁹

Yet, as the July 2009 letter from local activists working on recovery issues stated, "Our organizations have had little contact with Census Bureau officials, and we are concerned about plans for promoting awareness and participation in communities where people remain unsettled, as well as among migrant workers and people with limited English proficiency."

Among other reasons for concern are lack of an appropriate sense of urgency among some public officials. In a letter¹⁰ to the Advocate newspaper this spring, Bonner noted for example, that Governor Bobby Jindal had cited funds for ensuring an accurate census count as a wasteful expense. Other public officials have gone even further, denouncing the census itself and encouraging people not to participate.

An additional threat to achieving an accurate count among the region's growing immigrant population is the well-meaning but ill-advised call from some Latino clergy for a boycott of the census, as a means to pressure Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform. The boycott campaign has been challenged by national civil rights and immigration groups, but may add a layer of confusion and mistrust in a community already hard to reach.

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9. Evans, Desiree, "New Orleans: Will Displaced Residents be Counted, Facing South, Institute for Southern Studies, July 20, 2009, http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/07/new-orleans-will-displaced-residents-be-counted.html. 

10. Bonner, Trupania, Letter to the Editor, The Advocate, March 13, 2009.