By Kelly Kim Miller
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Steve Dillingham, the Director of the Census, was invited to talk about the 2020 census at the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas’s annual conference on Friday.
Since 2016, tensions in the Latino community have been on the rise. It’s largely due to the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. This year, the White House pushed for a citizenship question to be added to the census. A question like that would have likely discouraged immigrants from participating in the population count. The proposal was struck down by the Supreme Court in June, but worries still linger in the local Hispanic population located in Arkansas.
“Most of the people aware of what is happening..our people following the news..for some people, they may still in their minds–the question is going to be there,” Margarita Solorzano, the Executive Director of the HWOA, said.
Matthew Inthavong, a local teenager volunteering for the event, said that there are undocumented individuals in his own social circles. “I have a friend that I eat lunch with and she is undocumented here,” Inthavong said.
Milli Sandoval, another volunteer, said she knew family and friends affected by the citizenship question, but declined to say who.
“Yea, I mean I feel like everyone in our community lives in fear at times,” said Sandoval.
Dillingham had no problem addressing it as he spoke to a room full of HWOA members, volunteers, and local leaders at the Jones Center in Springdale, Arkansas. He said that that census bureau’s only job was to generate data and that federal law forbids the sharing of any personal information with anyone.
“If we violate it, we go to prison for a long time and we pay fines that we can’t afford,” Dillingham said.
Dillingham also talked about the work his bureau was doing. One of the bureau’s priorities was to overcome local language barriers by providing resources to people. Dillingham said that in 2020, they plan to provide help by phone in 13 different languages.
George McGill, Mayor of Fort Smith, was also there. He was appointed Chairman of the Complete Count Committee by Governor Asa Hutchinson. McGill said that getting an accurate count was critical because the data will help determine how much funding the state gets. He was very excited to talk about one of his ideas. His plan is to have a truck with the 2020 Census logo on the side travel around the state to educate locals about the census.
“We want to make sure that every Arkansan regardless of where they live that’s in those hard to count areas..those rural areas and our cities we want to make sure they are aware,” said McGill.
Both Dillingham and McGill also said that being accessible was a big priority for the population count. Dillingham said that the 2020 Census is doing a complete remodel of the way they do things. In 2020, people will be able to complete the census by phone, online, or on paper.
“So, people can do the 2020 Census anytime, anywhere. They can do it at a sporting event. They can do it at church. They can do it at a homeless shelter. So, we’re focusing on the hard to count populations. They can do it wherever,” said Dillingham.