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The 2010 Decennial Census In Danger Again - A Church Boycott?
Guest Column | By Marion Edwyn Harrison, ESQ. | April 30, 2009
Confusion, uncertainty and suspicion appear to have been competing with one another to confound or compromise the clear Constitutional requiement: Article I. Section 2, Clause 3, which pertinently and mandatorily requires that "Representatives [in Congress] shall be apportioned among the several States according to the [the States'] Numbers . . . [the] actual Enumeration shall be made . . within every . . . Term of ten Years, in such Manner as [Congress] shall by Law direct." Section 2 of Amendment XIV requires that "Representatives shall be apportioned among the . . . States according to their numbers, counting the whole number of persons in Each, excluding Indians not taxed."
Nowhere does the Constitution, a statute or a judicial decision remotely hint, much less provide, that unlawful immigrants, people who attend certain churches or both are to be excluded from the count. Tell that to an entity known as the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, which may have some 20,000 members in 34 States. The leadership of that entity has denounced the Census, claiming that Latinos may be scapegoats and a purpose of the Census may be to justify deportation of unlawful immigrants. Thus, intermittent confusion, uncertainty and suspicion now give rise to a thinly veiled intercession of religious freedom. A real purpose is clear - to avoid a realistically high illegal-immigrant count.
Fortunately no other sizeable Latino or Hispanic church group or other organization has joined in this protest. The National Association of Latino Elected Officials does not support the boycott. It may develop, were the protest to be sufficiently successful and publicized, that the protest would backfire by strengthening the legitimate concern of millions of native-born and lawful-immigrant Americans. Regardless of consequences, the protest adds another major concern as to the accuracy, efficacy and efficiency of the vitally important 2010 Decennial Census. The protest also may augment concern as to the effects of the inundation of the Nation by unlawful immigrants, variously estimated in the 10 - 12 million range.
A Census Bureau spokesman, one Raul Cisneros, has expressed the disappointment of the Bureau "that any organization would urge anyone . . . not [to] participate in the 2010 Census." The Census Bureau recognizes the problem. How effective its millions of census-takers will be in overcoming organized boycotting - that is, hiding from census-takers - remains to be seen. The boycott well may lessen the unlawful-immigrant count.
Meantime, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano evidently plans to enforce the law against only employers who "exploit" unlawful-immigrant workers, not against employers who pay them good wages and benefits and thus deprive native-born and lawful-immigrant Americans of jobs in the midst of a major recession.
If you stand more, this commentary on April 8, March 19 and February 26, 2009, website available, www.freecongress.org, further discusses confusion, uncertainty and grounds for suspicion as to the 2010 Decennial Census.
Marion Edwyn Harrison is President of, and Counsel for, the Free Congress Foundation.
This column is the property of the Free Congress Foundation and may not be reproduced without their permission. For comments and inquiries, contact Phyllis E. Hughes at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Visit our website at www.FreeCongress.org
Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.
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