I almost didn’t link to this story, because I don’t want to jinx it, but it was in USA Today, so I guess the cat’s out of the bag:
Hispanic groups call for Census boycott
Some Hispanic advocacy groups are calling for illegal immigrants to boycott the 2010 Census unless immigration laws are changed. The move puts them at odds with leading immigrant rights advocates and creates another hurdle in the Census Bureau’s quest to count everyone in the USA.
The National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, a group that says it represents 20,000 evangelical churches in 34 states, issued a statement this week urging undocumented immigrants not to fill out Census forms unless Congress passes “genuine immigration reform.”
Similar grass-roots campaigns are unfolding in Arizona and New Mexico to protest state and local crackdowns on illegal immigrants. Asking immigrants to be counted without giving them a chance to become legal residents counters church teachings, says the Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the Latino religious coalition.
I don’t know that the Fathers of the Church taught anything about the subject, but in any case, this is fine with me. It’s like Cleavon Little holding a gun to his own head in Blazing Saddles, except the joke’s on them. The exclusion of illegal aliens is something FAIR unsuccessfully sued to prevent in 1980 and 1990 (the courts said they lacked standing, if I remember correctly), because their inclusion distorts the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives and the state legislatures. The inclusion of illegals in the count is a large part of the reason Democrats control the California legislature, for instance, because their districts have few voters but lots of illegals. Which is the reason for this quote:
The call for a boycott “may be well-intended but misguided and ultimately irresponsible,” says Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials and a member of a Census advisory panel.
And then there’s this, which would have fired up Jim Boulet, may he rest in peace:
Nationally, efforts to have the Census reach Hispanics get backing from major Spanish-speaking media and organizations. For the first time, the Census will send forms in English and Spanish to about 13 million households in areas that have a high concentration of Hispanics.