Page 3 - ARUBA TODAY

A3
U.S. NEWS Friday 10 January 2020
Advocates warn citizenship, digital divide may affect Census

By MIKE SCHNEIDER the Leadership Conference
Associated Press on Civil & Human Rights.
Leaders of advocacy "There are no do-overs. We
groups warned lawmakers need to get it right the first
on Thursday that the fight time."
over a failed citizenship The Census Bureau needs
question, the digital divide to start holding emergency
and the wording of ques- job fairs and stop relying
tions on Hispanic origin and on an online system for hir-
race may lead to the un- ing in order to fill as many
dercounting of some com- as 500,000 temporary jobs,
munities during the 2020 said Marc Morial, presi-
Census. dent of the National Urban
The leaders from ethnic League.
advocacy groups and civil "It's time to ring the alarm
rights organizations also bell," Morial said. "If they
testified before the House continue on the course
Committee on Oversight they're going, they will not
and Reform that they wor- hire enough people and
ried the U.S. Census Bureau an undercount is pre-or-
was falling behind in hiring dained."
workers and that its media The online hiring system has
campaign promoting the made it more difficult for In this April 23, 2019 file photo, immigration activists rally outside the Supreme Court as the justices
census wasn't going to be some candidates to ap- hear arguments over the Trump administration's plan to ask about citizenship on the 2020 census,
robust enough. ply for jobs, said Kevin Allis, in Washington.
The Census Bureau says the CEO of the National Con- Associated Press
hardest people to count gress of American Indians.
are young children, ra- Allis said, for instance, that ferred paper forms, said reau on the brink of revers- last summer, but the issue
cial and ethnic minorities, not one Alaska Native has Arturo Vargas, CEO of the ing this just before the 2016 arose again during Thurs-
non-English speakers, immi- been hired as a "partner- NALEO Education Fund. election ... but the election day's hearing.
grants living in the country ship specialist," a person The federal government impacted this," Morial said. House Democrats and
illegally, the homeless and whoworks with local groups also failed to act on a pro- "It's not fair. It's not appro- several of the hearing's
low-income people. to raise awareness about posed change that would priate to allow those coun- witnesses said some immi-
The once-a-decade head the census. have combined questions ties that happen to house grants and Hispanics may
count will determine how The bureau didn't respond on race and Hispanic origin correctional facilities to get still be afraid to participate
$1.5 trillion in federal spend- to an email seeking com- in order to make it easier for a disproportionate share in the census this spring.
ing is allocated among the ment on the hiring con- Latinos who don't identify of resources and political "The administration's anti-
50 states and how many cerns. with the racial categories, power because they just immigrant policies and
congressional seats each The 2020 Census is the first Vargas said. happen to be the place its illegal effort to add a
gets. The count starts in decennial count in which Advocates also said the where incarcerated peo- citizenship question have
tribal communities in north- respondents are being en- bureau had been vague ple are." made an accurate count
ern Alaska in less than two couraged to fill out their in offering details on mo- The bureau didn't respond even harder to obtain by
weeks. Residents in the rest questionnaire online, al- bile centers that will help to an email question about sowing fear and distrust in
of the country can start though they will still be al- people fill out their forms, prisoners. communities across the
participating starting in the lowed to respond by tele- and some raised concerns President Donald Trump country," said U.S. Rep. Car-
middle of March. phone or mail in the form if that prisoners still would be had proposed adding a olyn Maloney, a Democrat
"The 2020 Census is likely they wish. counted at their facilities question to the 2020 cen- from New York who chairs
to be the largest and most A test run of the census in instead of the communities sus asking about U.S. citi- the oversight committee.
difficult enumeration ever," Rhode Island showedthat they come from. zenship. The U.S. Supreme "But this appears to be the
said Vanita Gupta, CEO of Latino participants pre- "We had the Census Bu- Court blocked the effort point."q

ML King Day activities to emphasize voters and nonviolence

ATLANTA (AP) — As the na- "This is an election year. For times at voting sites. who was pastor of the
tion prepares for the Mar- many people this is a dire The activities will be held at church until he was assas-
tin Luther King Jr. national election year," she said. and around The King Cen- sinated in 1968.
holiday amid a "dire" elec- "And I say that on both ter, from Jan. 10-20, in the Politicians, entertainers and
tion year, the Atlanta cen- sides of the equation. Both neighborhood where the sports figures are expected
ter named for him will of- sides of the aisle." civil rights champion lived. to attend various events,
fer nonviolence training, "We are confronted with Events include a two-day Bernice King said. Visitors to
voter registration and visits the fierce urgency of nonviolence workshop to The King Center will also be
from politicians, entertain- now," she added, echoing educate and train others able to take part in a new
ers and sports figures, King's a phrase her father em- in the protest method that "digital footsteps journey,"
daughter said Thursday. ployed in landmark 1967 King employed, and a K-12 she said. It's an interactive
The impeachment of Presi- sermon. Voter registration event focused on celebrat- display where visitors walk Bernice King, daughter of slain
civil rights leader Rev. Martin
dent Donald Trump and a will take place at the series ing the differences in peo- on a path connected to Luther King Jr., speaks about a
tumultuous climate in the of events, as well as a dem- ple. software that reveals the series of events to be held in
United States make this onstration of the workings The Atlanta events also in- energy they generated and around The King Center,
year's commemorative of new voting machines, clude a "day of service" at with each step, and shows on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020, in
event all the more crucial, in hopes of encouraging Ebenezer Baptist Church the various devices that Atlanta.
Bernice King told reporters. voting and reducing wait on Jan. 18 in honor of King, energy could power.q Associated Press