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INS raid upsets Census officials

R S Shankar

For several months Census officials have been sending out memos, news releases, putting up advertisements, and seeking the help of community leaders to spread the message: Every individual in America, including illegal migrants, need to be counted.

And the Census officials have sought to ease the fear of illegal immigrants, who feel that the information of their status could be passed on to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

And to ward off even the slightest suspicion of INS hovering around, the Census Bureau had received an assurance from the INS that it will slow down or suspend its operations against illegal immigrants till the most important phase of census taking was over by April 1. It was by then the Census Bureau wanted the forms returned.

Leaders who are associated with Census 2000 -- Jeevan Zutshi in San Francisco, Piyush Agarwal in Miami, Nick Shenoy in Philadelphia, and Subash Razdan in Atlanta -- too have been telling South Asians not to confuse the Census with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

But a raid conducted by INS in Arizona and the arrest of 140 illegal immigrants early this week has upset Census officials. It is not known if there are any Indians among the 140. A few weeks ago when several Sikhs, who had smuggled into Arizona from Mexico were arrested they sought political asylum, claiming they had been persecuted in India.

"The timing (of the raid) was most unfortunate,'' Adolfo Echeveste, manager of the Census 2000 office for eastern metro Phoenix, said in an interview.

"We in the federal government have been spending millions upon millions of dollars to point out that everyone should be counted, whether they are here legally or otherwise.'' The Census 2000 has spent about $ 50 million addressing this issue in the Hispanic and Asian media, by taking up advertisements in the print and electronic media.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is supposed to keep a low profile while Census 2000 is being conducted, he asserted.

But the INS officials said while they wanted to avoid the raids during the height of Census operation, the agency could not afford to ignore illegal migrants when police officials alerted them.

Despite the raid, community leaders such as Agarwal said that South Asians should not think twice about responding to census forms and head-counting.

"If we are not counted, we simply do not matter," he said. "Billions of dollars of federal and state money did not reach social service agencies after the last Census because many people -- legal and illegal -- did not respond."

Census statistics are used to determine the allocation of social welfare funds.

"Just because our community is affluent by and large," Agarwal continued, "it does not mean that there are no poor people among us who need assistance from the government."

According to Census officials the last headcount missed about 8 million people, mostly immigrants and the poor. So this time, to ensure better participation, the Census Bureau launched a $ 100 million ad campaign.

"We want everyone to be counted, and the Census wants everybody to be counted, but we want everyone to understand that there's no connection between Census takers and the INS," said Don Mueller, an INS spokesman.

By late April, Census workers will begin visiting homes that have not returned the forms. The house-to-house count will continue till December. Census officials believe the INS will not conduct any raids in the areas where the head counting is underway.

Meanwhile, reports in the media said arrests of illegal aliens for deportation fell last year to 8,600 down from 22,000 in 1997. One key reason for the decline is that the federal agency has been focusing on capturing aliens -- legal and illegal -- who commit crimes in the United States.

According to an Associated Press report, the number of these arrests have jumped in recent years. In 1993, the INS arrested 27,825 criminal aliens. In 1998, it arrested 55,639. Last year, that number jumped to 62,359.

"If you have limited resources it is advisable that you set specific aims," Mueller said. "We can't do both criminal and workplace enforcement when our resources are limited."

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