Census Bureau wants to halt immigration raids during 2010 Census

[Cubby]

I hope the raids stop in 2010. Immigrants are already severely undercounted. Hidalgo County, Texas (on the Rio Grande) was given a census population of 569,000 in 2000. But a Texas State estimate put it at 624,000 that year. How can we not count 55,000 people?! This not only hurts the communities that are undercounted, but the Democrats as well. They sure as hell wouldn't miss 55,000 people in Montgomery, TX or some other hyper-Republican stronghold.

On a related note, Libertarians and Republicans better not start whining that the Census invades their privacy like they did in 2000. I agree that some of the questions are not needed, the ones about plumbing, etc. on the long form. But to not fill out the short census form is, for lack of a better word, unpatriotic. It is part of the Constitution after all.

[Cubby]

On a related note, Libertarians and Republicans better not start whining that the Census invades their privacy like they did in 2000. I agree that some of the questions are not needed, the ones about plumbing, etc. on the long form. But to not fill out the short census form is, for lack of a better word, unpatriotic. It is part of the Constitution after all.

The long form won't be used for the regular census, having been replaced by the ACS.

Well, it looks like the complainers won that round. The ACS is very suspect in my opinion. The 2005 one shows lots of places declining from 2000 but only because it is very limited and leaves out large groups of people.

[Cubby]

On a related note, Libertarians and Republicans better not start whining that the Census invades their privacy like they did in 2000. I agree that some of the questions are not needed, the ones about plumbing, etc. on the long form. But to not fill out the short census form is, for lack of a better word, unpatriotic. It is part of the Constitution after all.

The long form won't be used for the regular census, having been replaced by the ACS.

Well, it looks like the complainers won that round. The ACS is very suspect in my opinion. The 2005 one shows lots of places declining from 2000 but only because it is very limited and leaves out large groups of people.

When they have enough data, it should be as statistically valid as the results from the long form (other than not being tied to a single date), and for larger populations on an annual basis.

The data that has been released so far excluded persons living in group quarters, so areas with a lot of college dormitories are undercounted.  Note that group quarters were excluded from the long form in the 2000 Census.

And what is their justification for excluding group quarters? It's much easier to call up a single jail or college and find out how many people live there, than it is to get the public at large to participate. If I remember from 2000, only 67% of Americans were capable of returning their census forms.