Queens residents have two days left to fill out the 2020 Census
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AMIT S. BAGGA, THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE NYC CENSUS 2020 INITIATIVE, TALKS WITH JACKSON HEIGHTS RESIDENTS ABOUT THE CENSUS ON ROOSEVELT AVENUE in July. EAGLE PHOTO BY RACHEL VICK
By David Brand
Queens residents have just two days left to complete the 2020 Census after the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the Trump Administration the power to cut the count short.
The count will end Friday morning at 6 a.m. Eastern Time, with Queens recording a self response rate of just 62.3 percent — lower than the state average of 63.9 percent and the national average of 66.8 percent, according to Census figures. The New York City self-response rate is 61.4 percent.
The once-a-decade count determines federal funding and Congressional apportionment for the next 10 years. The federal government uses imprecise tools for estimating total population when people do not complete the census, leading to significant undercounts, particularly in low-income and immigrant communities.
Opponents of the Trump Administration’s heavily litigated attempt to shorten the Census timeline slammed the decision by the Supreme Court, the latest twist in a months-long legal fight.
“Though it is a dark day in American history when the highest court in the land undermines an exercise so foundational to our democracy, make no mistake … we have beat back all of President Trump’s relentless attempts to steal the census from us,” said NYC Census Deputy Director Amit Singh Bagga.
CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE 2020 U.S. CENSUS (IT ONLY TAKES A FEW MINUTES)
Bagga said New York City has nearly matched its 2010 self-response rate and narrowed the gap between the nationwide response rate and the New York City average.
“Our campaign has laid a powerful foundation for all the residents of Queens, from Sunnyside to Jackson Heights to Richmond Hill, to organize and obtain the money, power, and respect that are rightfully ours – and none of that can be taken from us,” he said.
The city Census team devoted daily outreach to so-called “hard to count” communities in places like Richmond Hill, Corona and Elmhurst, where response rates have hovered around 50 percent.
On the other hand, Council Districts in Northeast and Central Queens have consistently recorded some of the highest response rates in the city.
NYC Census 2020 Director Julie Menin said losing two weeks will have a major impact on the self-response rate in New York City, which has been gradually increasing over the past several weeks. New York City loses $7,000 in federal funding for every one household that does not complete the Census, Menin said.
“Every single day we were moving those numbers upward. To lose those two weeks was unconscionable,” she said.
City Census outreach workers will continue canvassing hard-to-count communities and working with community-based organizations and more than 1,000 houses of worship until the very last moment, Menin added.
“We are working with every single one of our partners to get the message out that you have 48 hours to fill the census out,” she said. “We are hitting the streets very very hard.”
The Tuesday night Supreme Court decision came in response to an emergency application from the Trump Administration seeking to stop the count.
In April, the Census Bureau decided to extend the deadline until Oct. 31 as a result of COVID-related disruptions. The agency said it would submit the results in April 2021, but in August, the Trump Administration abruptly changed course and decided to end the Census on Sept. 30 in order to submit the results by Dec. 31. In late September, a federal judge in California ordered the federal government to keep counting.
The Supreme Court ruling temporarily halts the count while that order is under appeal, but the decision effectively ends the Census because the massive undertaking is unlikely to resume.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter in the unsigned decision.
“The harms associated with an inaccurate census are avoidable and intolerable,” she wrote.
At a press conference Wednesday, New York Immigration Coalition Census Senior Fellow Meeta Anand said Trump’s decision to cut the count short was grounded in xenophobia and an attempt to undermine the power of low-income communities, urban residents, immigrants and people of color.
“The Trump Administration is acting out of fear. They fear a United States of America where we are a majority minority,” Anand said. “They will do everything they can to make sure the true nature of our society is not reflected and that our people cannot get the power they deserve.”
