Omar E. Zapata | THE RIDER
With the 2020 Census pushing ahead its deadline to Sept. 30, Hidalgo and Cameron County officials say the response rate is slacking behind state and nationwide averages, which could result in less funding for the next 10 years.
The national self-response rate is at 64% with Texas having a 59.2% rate according to the 2020 Census website. Hidalgo County’s response is at 49.9% while Cameron County’s is at 47.9%.
Dalilah Garcia, a census media specialist at the McAllen local area census office, said that the 34 southmost counties of Texas, except for one county, are below a 50% response rate.
Garcia said that the census is conducted every 10 years and affects everything around the community. The census takes count of how many people are in the community and what type of people as well.
“[The census counts] what is the age group, how many men, how many women because then that tells us what are the needs of the community and then it helps federal legislatures, state governments and local municipalities to be able to plan ahead for the future of their community,” Garcia said.
Nestor Lopez, economic development analyst for the Hidalgo County judge’s office told The Rider that counting everyone in the county is difficult for multiple reasons.
“We’re very unique because we don’t have one major city, we have 22 small cities that account for everything and on top of that, we have a very large rural population,” Lopez said.
He said that the county estimates that anywhere between a third and a fourth of Hidalgo County’s population lies within the rural or unincorporated areas.
Lopez said The Census Bureau estimated that approximately 870,000 people live in Hidalgo County, but have been undercounted the previous two decades. He said the county estimates that more than a million people live in the county.
“That really creates a scenario where we received the federal and state funding for 870,000 people approximately, yet we are tasked to serve over a million people,” he said.
Sylvia Garza-Perez , Cameron County clerk, also said that her county has been undercounted in the past. Garza-Perez told The Rider that the 2010 Census estimated that around 400,000 people lived in Cameron County.
Both Hidalgo and Cameron County went to court with the Census Bureau in the past over their respective county’s being undercounted. Both were ruled in favor and had adjustments to their count.
Lopez said around 40,000 people were added to Hidalgo County’s population but felt they were still under counted by a good 100-200,000 people.
Garza-Perez said Cameron County lost about $23 million due to the undercount.
“In 2010, they estimated us to be getting about $1,600 per individual, per household,” she said. “So, if you have a household of six people, every person that gets counted, that entitles … the county $1,600 per person, per year. So, a family of six not being counted costs us in one year $9,600 of federal funding, over 10 years at $96,000.”
Hidalgo and Cameron County both knew that their respective county’s had an issue getting everyone counted so they organized committees and plans to roll out for this census, but COVID-19 changed all of that.
Lopez told The Rider that Hidalgo County had started a committee in 2017 to tackle the issues of being undercounted because they knew what was at stake.
“Unfortunately, the first date to respond for the census was March 16, which is right at the center when COVID started exploding,” he said. “So that made everything extremely difficult to us because we had to go back to the drawing board and really redo absolutely everything and it threw off our game plan. Our game plan was in person events.”
Garza-Perez said one of Cameron’s County’s plans to combat undercounting was to have people at the schools to enroll parents to get students counted, but COVID-19 threw all in-person plans out the door.
Garza-Perez told The Rider one of the largest demands is the county’s school districts and educational programs. She said school districts get money to fund their free lunch program, special education programs and any other program from the census.
“In 2010, 5% of people that were not counted were children and they were children from the age of 5,” Garza-Perez said. “That means that if a 1 year old didn’t get counted, within a 10-year period they’re going to be in your school district, and if they weren’t counted the school district isn’t going to be getting the money that they need to continue funding the program that provides an education to that child.”
She said, for example, in Brownsville, 16 schools throughout the school district are below 50%, which means the communities that surround those schools have not responded to the census.
Garza-Perez said that the deadline is weeks away and Cameron County is not even at half of what they were in 2010, which was a response rate of 56.4%.
She said for every percent that increases, it takes 1,232 households, not residents, to respond to the census.
“In order for [Cameron County] to get to 50%, we need 3,321 households to respond. In order to get to 60%, we need 61,590 households,” Garza-Perez said.
She said her concern right now is that Cameron County is going to get less money than what it got in 2010.
Lopez said if Hidalgo County residents want better government resources, they need to be counted.
“If you want better things like better education, better health care, better drainage, better roadwork, better everything, even political representation, we need to be counted because right now we are being underserved by our government,” he said. “We are being underfunded and underrepresented, and really that’s the message we’re trying to get because if we’re not counted accurately, that trend is just going to continue for the next 10 years.”
When asked about what problems come about when trying to count Hidalgo’s undocumented population, Lopez replied how President Donald Trump’s administration attempted to put a citizenship question on the census.
“This was challenged and challenged up through the courts up until it went to the Supreme Court, where it was actually taken down and the Supreme Court ruled that it was to not be on the questionnaire,” he said.
With this question about citizenship not on the census, Lopez says it still sends a message and overall theme that is resonating in the community.
“A lot of people have just been very fearful toward the government, because of this rhetoric that’s coming out [of the White House],” he said. “So while it’s not on the questionnaire, the negative effects are still very much lingering in our community.”
Garcia said the census counts every single person in the United States regardless of immigration status. All census data is confidential and, by law, the Department of Commerce cannot divulge identifiable information to any other government agency including the U.S. Border Patrol.
You can complete the 2020 Census three different ways.
Garcia said this is the first time the census can be completed by the internet by going to 2020census.gov.
“About 50% of all the responses we have seen have been by the internet,” she said.
Lopez said this is an issue for Hidalgo County since much of the large areas of the county do not have internet connectivity.
The other ways are by mail and phone call at 1-880-330-2020 with lines open from 7 a.m to 2 a.m EST.
For more information and hiring opportunities, visit the census website at 2020census.gov.
Local community leaders and businesses have partnered together with the Valley Alliance for Mentors Opportunities and Scholarship (VAMOS) to establish the Rio Grande Census Ambassador Scholarship which aims to improve response rates in the RGV. This provides Rio Grande valley students who are enrolled in high school, vocational school or college a chance at a $1,000 scholarship.
Thelma Tamez, one of the founding partners of the scholarship, told The Rider that it first started off as a pilot program for about 280 students.
“We were able to identify what worked and what didn’t work,” she said.
Sarah Hammond, another founding partner, said that the best way for them to get into people’s homes was through students.
“So all you have to do is go to the website, fill in your information so that we can account for who you are and your name can go into the list to win a scholarship. And then, after you do that, you also take a screenshot of the census that was completed and upload that screenshot,” Tamez said.
She said a student can turn in as many as they can, the more that they get counted the more times their name will go into that opportunity.
For more information, visit www.rgvcensusscholarship.org
