{"id":477777,"date":"2010-03-26T12:12:36","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T16:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.southernstudies.org,2010:\/\/5.12198"},"modified":"2010-03-31T12:21:41","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T16:21:41","slug":"immigrants-being-held-for-census-count-then-deported","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/477777","title":{"rendered":"Immigrants being held for Census count, then deported"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Detention.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>By Kevin Sieff, Texas Observe<\/a>r<\/em><\/p>\n

Henry Arroliga lives in South Texas’ Port Isabel Detention Center, one of the
\nnation’s largest immigration detention facilities. After 17 years of
\nliving illegally in the United States, he’s bracing himself to return to
\n his native Nicaragua. Although Arroliga could very well be deported
\nwithin the next month, the 2010 U.S. Census will count him as a resident
\n of Los Fresnos, in Cameron County. His short stint at Port Isabel will
\npay dividends to the city, county, and state for the next decade.<\/p>\n

Arroliga is one of more than 30,000 immigrant detainees who will be
\ncounted in this year’s census. Four hundred billion dollars in federal
\nfunding over the next 10 years will be distributed based on the count,
\nmaking detainees worth thousands of dollars to cities, counties, and
\nstates where they are briefly detained. The government will allocate
\nmore than $100 million in additional funds to places where immigrants
\nare detained.<\/p>\n

More than funding is at stake: The composition of legislative
\ndistricts, county board districts, and city council districts could be skewed<\/a> by
\nsoon-to-be-deported prisoners. Census data are used on the state and
\nnational levels to determine the sizes and shapes of these districts.
\nThe inclusion of detainees in the count means fewer eligible voters per
\nelected official in places like Cameron County. It also violates the
\nprinciple of “proportional representation.”<\/p>\n

For decades, the government has included prisoners in the census,
\nregardless of their immigration status. In the past, the impact of
\nimmigrant detainees has been slight. This is the first decennial census
\nsince the re-organization of immigrantion agencies and the subsequent
\nboom in immigration detention. Immigration prisons have expanded from
\n7,500 beds in 1995 to more than 30,000 in 2010. About one-third of the
\nnation’s immigrant detainees are held in Texas.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t count undocumented immigrants in the custody of the U.S.
\n Marshals Service awaiting deportation proceedings–thousands in Texas
\nalone. Carl Caulk, the U.S. Marshals assistant director for prisoner
\n operations, says that recent Border Patrol crackdowns like Operation
\nStreamline have sent the number of immigrants in Marshals’ custody
\nthrough the roof. Operation Streamline mandated that charges be filed
\nagainst virtually every person caught crossing the border illegally.
\nLike ICE detainees, these immigrants will be counted in the 2010 census.<\/p>\n

The Census Bureau’s inclusion of immigrant detainees has received
\nlittle notice. It comes at a tense time in the immigration debate, with
\nreform advocates facing a challenging political climate. This year’s
\npopulation count points to an often ignored irony: The country’s
\ndetention facilities are concentrated in districts represented by some
\nof Congress’ most outspoken advocates of reform–including several South
\nTexas congressmen who will benefit from counting immigrant detainees.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, a Corpus Christi Democrat, introduced a
\ncomprehensive immigration reform bill in the House this spring. Yet with
\n about 5,000 beds for immigrant detainees, his South Texas district
\nstands to see millions of additional tax dollars allocated on the basis
\nof the census.<\/p>\n

In response to questions from the Observer<\/em>, Ortiz issued a
\nstatement reading: “The U.S. Census Bureau is mandated by the United
\nStates Constitution to count every resident regardless of citizenship
\nstatus. I can assure you that it is in everybody’s best interest to get
\nas many people as possible counted.”<\/p>\n

Until this census, the count had never identified exactly where
\n“group quarters” like prisons are and how many people occupy them. For
\nthe first time, this census will let states decide whether to count
\ndetainees in local populations. By excluding prisoners, states would get
\n a more accurate population count and would ensure that funds are not
\ndistributed according to locations of large detention centers. The
\namount of federal funding directed to the state would not change.<\/p>\n

Counting prisoners–residents or immigrants–is against Texas state
\nlaw. “A person who is an inmate in a penal institution or who is an
\ninvoluntary inmate in a hospital or eleemosynary institution does not,
\nwhile an inmate, acquire residence at the place where the institution is
\n located,” reads Texas Election Code Section 1.015. Nevertheless, the
\ncensus counts them as residents.<\/p>\n

“There’s a clear discrepancy between state law and the Census
\nBureau’s methodology,” said Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy
\nInitiative, a Massachusetts-based research group.<\/p>\n

Congressman Ortiz had no comment on how detainees could affect
\nfederal funding and redistricting. Some of his former supporters see his
\n willingness to profit from his district’s immigrant detainees as
\nevidence of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

“I can’t think of anything more two-faced,” said the Rev. Miguel
\nRivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and
\nChristian Leaders, and an advocate for immigration reform.<\/p>\n

To the Census Bureau’s dismay, Rivera has urged undocumented
\nimmigrants not to fill out the census forms. “It’s our greatest
\nbargaining chip,” he said. “The states and counties want the funding,
\nand we want the legalization.” Rivera’s campaign has received
\nconsiderable attention, and while many Latino leaders disagree with his
\napproach, he is convinced that threatening to withhold the instruments
\nof federal funding is the way to attract politicians to the table.<\/p>\n

Within facilities like Port Isabel, detainees likely won’t be able to
\n opt out of the census. According to Census Bureau officials, for the
\nlast month detention center employees have been completing census forms
\non behalf of inmates like Henry Arroliga.<\/p>\n

“They’re using them to secure federal funding and political power,
\nand then they’re shipping them out of the country,” Rivera said. “It’s
\nan insult.”<\/p>\n

The issue has made Rivera and U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana
\nRepublican, unlikely bedfellows. Vitter, along with several other
\nconservatives in Congress, supported an unsuccessful effort last fall to
\n exclude noncitizens from apportionment and redistricting counts. “I
\ndon’t believe noncitizens should be counted in congressional
\nreapportionment,” Vitter told Congress last fall. “I don’t think states
\nwhich have particularly large noncitizen populations should have more
\nsay and more clout in Congress, and that states like Louisiana that
\ndon’t should be penalized.” Or, if you follow the logic, that states
\nlike Texas should be rewarded.<\/p>\n

In Raymondville<\/strong>, a
\n rural city 100 miles south of Corpus Christi, the census count is
\nbuzzing along. The Census Bureau has a booth outside City Hall. Local TV
\n stations are advertising the importance of filling out the forms.
\nPeople have been hired to distribute forms, part of a 1.2 million
\ntemporary work force nationwide that will make up the largest civilian
\nmobilization of Americans in history.<\/p>\n

In Raymondville, the conversation isn’t about the scale of the
\ngovernment’s undertaking. It’s about the Willacy Detention Center, the
\ncountry’s largest detention facility, holding up to 3,000 prisoners.
\nWhen the census came up at the last City Council meeting, a councilman
\nasked city secretary Eleazar Garcia: “What about the detainees? Do we
\nget to count them?”<\/p>\n

If its population exceeds 10,000 in the census, Raymondville would be
\n in the running for a panoply of state grants. The only way that could
\nhappen is if the city’s immigrant detainees are included in the count.
\n“Overall, we would benefit if we could hit that mark,” Garcia said.<\/p>\n

So would La Villa, just north of McAllen. The 2000 census found its
\npopulation to be 1,305. Just a year later, the Louisiana-based private
\nprison company LCS Corrections Services Inc. opened the East Hidalgo
\nDetention Center, which houses up to 990 immigrant detainees. According
\nto its warden, the facility is almost always full.<\/p>\n

After the 2010 Census is tallied, the detention center will nearly
\ndouble La Villa’s population on paper, potentially doubling its federal
\nfunding allocation distributed by the state according to population.
\n(The facility, run by the U.S. Marshals, is already a boon to the local
\ngovernment, which receives $2 per prisoner per day.)<\/p>\n

The distribution of funds based on immigrant detainee populations
\n“points to a flaw in the way the population counts are used,” said
\nAudrey Singer, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a
\nWashington-based think tank. “The fact that ICE detainees are
\ngeographically concentrated will have an effect on the count.”<\/p>\n

In Washington, there appears to be confusion about the inclusion of
\nimmigrant detainees in the census. Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Laredo
\nDemocrat, represents a district that includes the 1,900-bed South Texas Detention Center<\/a> and the 450-bed
\n Laredo Contract Detention Facility. He defended the inclusion of
\nimmigrant detainees: “Vitally important funding that supports these
\nfacilities relies, in part, on census data.”<\/p>\n

Experts say Cuellar is wrong. “Immigration prisons are funded by the
\nDepartment of Homeland Security, not formula grants” based on census
\ndata, said Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative.  
Like Rep. Ortiz,
\n Cuellar is a longstanding advocate of immigration reform. His attitude
\nabout immigrant detainees in the census has disturbed immigration-reform
\n advocates in his district.<\/p>\n

One reason Texas’ congressmen and state representatives might be
\nlooking the other way is that 375,000 Texans were not counted in 2000,
\naccording to a Census Bureau study. That cost the state a huge amount of
\n federal dollars. The main culprit, experts agree, was the difficulty of
\n getting undocumented immigrants–including an estimated 150,000 in the
\nRio Grande Valley alone–to participate.<\/p>\n

This year, the Census Bureau has spent millions on a campaign to
\nconvince minorities, including undocumented immigrants, to get
\nthemselves counted. Still, community organizers and activists along the
\nborder say the effort faces considerable challenges.<\/p>\n

“The census worker shows up and expects people to be compliant,” said
\n Michael Seifert of the Equal Voice for America’s Families Network.
\n“Much laughter is heard in the cantina around that idea.” During the
\n2000 census, Seifert said some immigrants distrusted and feared the
\ngovernment–a fear then inspired by President Bill Clinton’s 1996
\nimmigration enforcement bills.<\/p>\n

“I find it so sweetly ironic that those who have been caught up in
\nthe biggest dragnet of a civilian population in American history–the
\ndetainees–will be included in the census count, and therefore serve as a
\n ‘corrective’ to all of those people who will ignore the census
\nrequest,” Seifert said.<\/p>\n

The issue could be resolved if Texas decides to remove immigrant
\ndetainees from the count before distributing state funds and addressing
\nredistricting. The Census Bureau has agreed to release data on inmate
\npopulations earlier than usual to let states and localities consider it
\nin apportioning districts for 2011 and 2012 races. It’s an issue that
\ncould be broached in the 2011 legislative session. Bills to make such
\nadjustments are already pending in New York, Maryland, Illinois, Florida
\n and Wisconsin. So far, including
\n immigrant detainees<\/a> in Texas’ census count has been a non-issue.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to believe that the victims of our inhumane immigration
\ndetention system are being used like this,” Rivera said, “like pawns in a
\n game of state and national politics.”<\/p>\n

Kevin Sieff lives in
\nWashington, D.C. and is a contributing writer for The Texas Observer<\/a>, where this originally appeared.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Sieff, Texas Observer Henry Arroliga lives in South Texas’ Port Isabel Detention Center, one of the nation’s largest immigration detention facilities. After 17 years of living illegally in the United States, he’s bracing himself to return to his native Nicaragua. Although Arroliga could very well be deported within the next month, the 2010 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-477777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}