Clergy group asks Latino immigrants to boycott census

By Gil Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio

MADISON (WPR) A national group of Latino clergy is calling on immigrants to boycott the 2010 census. But immigrant advocates in Wisconsin are giving the proposed protest a cool reception.

The New England based boycott proposal is known as legalization before enumeration. Its leaders claim to represent more than one million people in 34 states. Their goal is to pressure the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform or force states and cities to go without the federal aid that census figures are used to calculate. Peter Munoz of Madison's Centro Hispano calls it an ill-conceived strategy. Munoz says the best approach is to count every single person that is here, particularly emphasizing the fact they are being constructive members of the community and they are bringing real resources to a municipality in terms of shared revenues from the federal government.

Estimates of the number of undocumented workers in Wisconsin are hard to come by but the 2000 census found only 3.6% of the state's population are foreign born.  Christine Neumann Ortiz of the Milwaukee based Voces de la Frontera says she sympathizes with the boycott's goals, but would rather have all immigrants, legal and illegal counted in the census. Neumann Ortiz says I see the value in supporting the census count because it will not count immigration status and 85% of immigrant families are of mixed immigration status so there are many people who benefit from some of the funding that does come in terms of the public programs.

Calls to the regional office of the 2010 census in Chicago were not immediately returned but a national spokeswoman says she's disappointed that a group would encourage people not to be counted.

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Information from Wisconsin Public Radio