Should non-U.S. citizens be counted in the upcoming Census?

Demographer and statistician Elliot Stonecipher said absolutely not and there are only nine states in the country that would benefit if this portion of the population were included.

His remarks were made at a New Iberia Rotary Club meeting Wednesday at the Ramada Inn with special guests from the area chambers of commerce, the Acadiana Regional Alliance and economic development groups.

Elliot Stonechipher addresses Rotarians. Lee Ball/The Daily Iberian Advertisement

Stonecipher said Louisiana is one state that needs to pay close attention to the 2010 Census, and he warned that Acadiana communities need to pay the most attention.

“We hope to make certain people at the local level throughout Louisiana, if you’ve ever ignored the Census in the past, don’t ignore it now,” he said. “This is not your father’s or grandfather’s Census, and you don’t want to go to sleep while the count is being taken.”

The problem lies in the fact Louisiana’s population has not grown, according to Census Bureau estimates, since 1985, making it likely the state will lose a congressional seat and its “fair share” of federal dollars following the 2010 count, he said.

“If you are in or are part of a region that has had growth like Lafayette, you should gain congressional representation and your part of the annual $400 billion in federal money available should increase,” he said.

“That’s what would happen if we had a fair count, which is highly unlikely.”

He said in the past, up until about 1960, the Census Bureau asked the citizenship question on its surveys and was able to set aside certain populations for certain reasons.

The question has not appeared again on a survey since that time, making it impossible to set aside certain populations which greatly benefits states like California and Texas that have large groups of undocumented migrant workers who are counted as residents.

Kat Smith, media specialist for the Census Bureau, said the agency does not care about citizenship for gauging an accurate count of the country’s population, which is estimated to top 308 million when the numbers are finally tallied.

“The Census does not care if you are here illegally,” Smith said. “It does not determine if you are using resources here in the U.S. Even if they are living here and they are here for only a short period of time, as long as they are here on April 1, we count them.”

Smith also said people migrate constantly all over the country so for the purposes of the census, determining representation and divvying up federal money, there is no way of saying that counting non-citizens affects one particular area more than others.

Stonecipher said if the Census Bureau asked the citizenship question and was then able to “back-out” those numbers from the population figures, Louisiana would not lose a congressional seat though it would remain likely the state would still lose a portion of federal money it receives.

What makes counting the population of Louisiana this time around even more complicated is the way Census workers will collect the data, he said.

There will be a special census in 15 Louisiana parishes and instead of sticking to pre-verified addresses, Census workers can enumerate (to count the number of) anyone they want to, 12 times if they want to,” Stonecipher said.

Smith said the bureau has designated certain parishes where surveys will be hand-delivered, specifically areas still reeling from the devastation caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, though she admitted the final list of parishes, with only eight months until counting begins, has not been determined.

She said the method of delivery might not be the same parishwide and said “this person across the street might get a hand delivered survey while his neighbor may get his in the mail.”

Stonecipher said what he believes needs to happen is the development of a fair count initiative on the local level in place when the counting starts. He also said he would like to see Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and state Attorney General Buddy Cladwell file suit to stop the Census as it will be conducted, petitioning for fairer counting practices.

“If we sit back, it’s on us because we knew it was happening,” he said. “We need to stay involved in the process.”