ST. PAUL — AAOP condemns the shortened Census operations timeline and urges our Asian community to complete the Census.
On July 30th, the Trump Administration quietly pushed the U.S. Census Bureau to end in-person no-response Census follow up operations one month early, from the initial deadline of October 31 to September 30.
This move comes after COVID-19 pushed in-person operations to extend to October 31 to accommodate for health and public safety precautions in navigating COVID-19.
“We need a fair and accurate count and that means that Census operations must run as long as possible — through October. The Trump Administration’s move to end Census operations early means many of our historically under-counted (HUC) communities will once again be left out of the count and left out of resources needed for our communities to thrive,” says leyen, Communications & Digital Director.
HUC communities include immigrant, young people, Black, Asian, Indigenous, Latinx, queer communities, young people and more. A lower representation of HUC communities means HUC communities often don’t receive funding or resources needed, and often don’t get the political representation in state and federal seats.
AAOP has been canvassing since 2019 to first inform our communities about the Census, its importance, and to ask our communities to pledge to take the Census. The Census form opened a couple weeks before COVID-19 locked many of our communities done and as a result, AAOP has focused primarily on digital and phone bank outreach efforts in order to keep our communities safe.
With the sudden shortened timeline, it means that our communities will not be properly counted and represented. We need to ensure that our communities, our immigrant, Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, young people and queer communities, are counted in the Census.
When we are counted in the Census, we’re visible in the eyes of the government, and we can ensure our communities receive resources to make valuable decisions for us to thrive in the next 10 years.
###