July 4th, 2018
Dear Secretary Ross,
We Hmong were recruited by the CIA as America's secret guerrilla army in Laos during the Vietnam War. We fought communist troops, disrupting supply lines and rescuing thousands of downed American pilots along the Ho Chi Minh trail. Now, approximately 300,000 of us call the United States home. According to the Pew Research Center, an internationally renowned nonpartisan fact tank which relies heavily on a complete and accurate Census count, 2000-2015 data* shows that 61% of us are now proficient in English, 59% of us are employed with a median annual household income of $48,000, and 44% of us are homeowners. Many of us are also now business owners and American citizens.
However, citizen or not, the data still shows that 28.3% of us live in poverty. That’s nearly 1 out of every 3 Hmong. Moreover, out of those who go to college only 14% achieve a bachelor’s degree and only 4% hold a postgraduate degree. Compare this to 19% of all Americans with a bachelor’s degree and 11% with a postgraduate degree. As far as we’ve come as a cultural community in the 43 years we’ve been in the U.S., we still have a long way to go, and a complete and accurate count in the 2020 Census is integral to our future success in cities, big and small, across America.
Mr. John Abowd, your chief scientist, in a memo on January 19th, 2018, stated that adding the citizenship question “is very costly, harms the quality of the census count, and would use substantially less accurate citizenship status data than are available from administrative sources.”
Again, citizen or not, 39% of us do not fully understand English, 41% of us are unable to work, 56% of us are renters, and most grievous of all, a majority of us living in poverty are either under 18, or over 65 years of age. These are all traditionally undercounted populations that need to be engaged, not deterred, and that is what the citizenship question is, a deterrent from filling out the Census 2020 form. There is no other way to put it. The fact that it was added to the form after Mr. Abowd clearly stated the negative effects that it would have on the Census 2020 count, means that the question was added as a deterrent meant to discourage full participation in the Census by some residents of this great country, citizen or not.
Therefore our Hmong American Census Network (HACN) is taking a stand against the inclusion of the citizenship question on the Census 2020 form.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice states that, “This decision compromises the integrity and accuracy of Census data planning, preparation, for and execution of the 2020 Census. This move to include a citizenship question will waste millions of taxpayer dollars that have been spent thus far in the process and the many millions more that will be needed to try to persuade participation in the upcoming census.**”
For example, one of our undercounted populations includes some of our non-citizen secret war veterans and other seniors who need funding for boots-on-the-ground, personal, one-on-one engagement in the Hmong language. Such as Hmong language video and radio ads encouraging them to complete the census because it will help to bring more federal dollars directly to their assistance programs. What they don't need is another reason to feel even more isolated and apart from their constitutional right to be counted as a free person of legal, permanent resident status. This population will struggle for the rest of their lives with the trauma of having to flee their homeland after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam and Laos. There may never be enough funding to overcome the fact that the citizenship question is yet another reminder for them that they have no country to call their own.
The undercounted population that would be deterred the most by the citizenship question are, of course, immigrant parents. These individuals tend to have lower English skills, higher poverty rates, and be much more apathetic, and suspicious, of government in general. Hmong immigrant parents are more worried about their families being targeted by acts of institutional racism than the general immigration threats of detention and deportation. Especially if they live in areas without a larger supporting Hmong community. The keys to engagement with this undercounted population is going to be funding educational materials for their children, so that their children can help them complete the census form (whether online, or by hand), and then also partnering with respected, local Hmong community leaders to help spread the word that not only will a complete and accurate count bring in more federal assistance dollars to the very programs that they rely on, but also that their census data is absolutely safe and secure- even though it's been breached before^.
There's a great article about how as Hmong families moved into Missouri at the start of this decade to work, live, and farm, the Missouri Department of Agriculture awarded in 2015 a $60,452 grant to Webb City Farmers Market in the city of Rocky Comfort to help develop a local farm owned by the Yang family into a teaching farm^^. Showing how to build and maintain season-extending high tunnels for themselves, and other Hmong farmers, who are contributing to the local economy with natural agricultural skills gained in the mountains of Laos. The Hmong population in Missouri went from 26 residents in 2000 to an estimated 1,329 in 2010. A complete and accurate count in 2020 will only further help find funding for these Hmong farmers to be more successful doing what they love, in the country that they now call home.
Tens of thousands of Hmong lives were heroically lost as American allies in one of the fiercest conflicts in US history, so that we, their survivors and descendants could have the hope of coming to and thriving in America. The future growth and development of our Hmong community here in the U.S. ultimately depends on having the funds, and resources, for a complete and accurate census count in 2020 without having to overcome an arbitrary, costly, and detrimental obstacle such as the citizenship question. Census data informs funding and policy decisions at all levels until the next census. Decades are so precious because we only get a handful, or two if we're lucky, to get things right. That is why we ardently urge you to, as immediately as possible, remove the citizenship question from the Census 2020 form. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Hmong American Census Network
* Pew Research Center, 2018-7-4, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/fact-sheet/asian-americans-hmong-in-the-u-s/
** Advancing Justice, AAJC, 2018-7-4, https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/press-release/advancing-justice-aajc-appeals-congress-stop-citizenship-question-census
^ ScientificAmerican, 2018-7-4, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-the-us-census-b/
^^ Joplin Globe, 2018-7-4, http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/missouri-agriculture-grant-to-help-area-hmong-farmers/article_a16b2767-c0e3-5b99-8db5-b78503b325dc.html
Dear Secretary Ross,
We Hmong were recruited by the CIA as America's secret guerrilla army in Laos during the Vietnam War. We fought communist troops, disrupting supply lines and rescuing thousands of downed American pilots along the Ho Chi Minh trail. Now, approximately 300,000 of us call the United States home. According to the Pew Research Center, an internationally renowned nonpartisan fact tank which relies heavily on a complete and accurate Census count, 2000-2015 data* shows that 61% of us are now proficient in English, 59% of us are employed with a median annual household income of $48,000, and 44% of us are homeowners. Many of us are also now business owners and American citizens.
However, citizen or not, the data still shows that 28.3% of us live in poverty. That’s nearly 1 out of every 3 Hmong. Moreover, out of those who go to college only 14% achieve a bachelor’s degree and only 4% hold a postgraduate degree. Compare this to 19% of all Americans with a bachelor’s degree and 11% with a postgraduate degree. As far as we’ve come as a cultural community in the 43 years we’ve been in the U.S., we still have a long way to go, and a complete and accurate count in the 2020 Census is integral to our future success in cities, big and small, across America.
Mr. John Abowd, your chief scientist, in a memo on January 19th, 2018, stated that adding the citizenship question “is very costly, harms the quality of the census count, and would use substantially less accurate citizenship status data than are available from administrative sources.”
Again, citizen or not, 39% of us do not fully understand English, 41% of us are unable to work, 56% of us are renters, and most grievous of all, a majority of us living in poverty are either under 18, or over 65 years of age. These are all traditionally undercounted populations that need to be engaged, not deterred, and that is what the citizenship question is, a deterrent from filling out the Census 2020 form. There is no other way to put it. The fact that it was added to the form after Mr. Abowd clearly stated the negative effects that it would have on the Census 2020 count, means that the question was added as a deterrent meant to discourage full participation in the Census by some residents of this great country, citizen or not.
Therefore our Hmong American Census Network (HACN) is taking a stand against the inclusion of the citizenship question on the Census 2020 form.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice states that, “This decision compromises the integrity and accuracy of Census data planning, preparation, for and execution of the 2020 Census. This move to include a citizenship question will waste millions of taxpayer dollars that have been spent thus far in the process and the many millions more that will be needed to try to persuade participation in the upcoming census.**”
For example, one of our undercounted populations includes some of our non-citizen secret war veterans and other seniors who need funding for boots-on-the-ground, personal, one-on-one engagement in the Hmong language. Such as Hmong language video and radio ads encouraging them to complete the census because it will help to bring more federal dollars directly to their assistance programs. What they don't need is another reason to feel even more isolated and apart from their constitutional right to be counted as a free person of legal, permanent resident status. This population will struggle for the rest of their lives with the trauma of having to flee their homeland after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam and Laos. There may never be enough funding to overcome the fact that the citizenship question is yet another reminder for them that they have no country to call their own.
The undercounted population that would be deterred the most by the citizenship question are, of course, immigrant parents. These individuals tend to have lower English skills, higher poverty rates, and be much more apathetic, and suspicious, of government in general. Hmong immigrant parents are more worried about their families being targeted by acts of institutional racism than the general immigration threats of detention and deportation. Especially if they live in areas without a larger supporting Hmong community. The keys to engagement with this undercounted population is going to be funding educational materials for their children, so that their children can help them complete the census form (whether online, or by hand), and then also partnering with respected, local Hmong community leaders to help spread the word that not only will a complete and accurate count bring in more federal assistance dollars to the very programs that they rely on, but also that their census data is absolutely safe and secure- even though it's been breached before^.
There's a great article about how as Hmong families moved into Missouri at the start of this decade to work, live, and farm, the Missouri Department of Agriculture awarded in 2015 a $60,452 grant to Webb City Farmers Market in the city of Rocky Comfort to help develop a local farm owned by the Yang family into a teaching farm^^. Showing how to build and maintain season-extending high tunnels for themselves, and other Hmong farmers, who are contributing to the local economy with natural agricultural skills gained in the mountains of Laos. The Hmong population in Missouri went from 26 residents in 2000 to an estimated 1,329 in 2010. A complete and accurate count in 2020 will only further help find funding for these Hmong farmers to be more successful doing what they love, in the country that they now call home.
Tens of thousands of Hmong lives were heroically lost as American allies in one of the fiercest conflicts in US history, so that we, their survivors and descendants could have the hope of coming to and thriving in America. The future growth and development of our Hmong community here in the U.S. ultimately depends on having the funds, and resources, for a complete and accurate census count in 2020 without having to overcome an arbitrary, costly, and detrimental obstacle such as the citizenship question. Census data informs funding and policy decisions at all levels until the next census. Decades are so precious because we only get a handful, or two if we're lucky, to get things right. That is why we ardently urge you to, as immediately as possible, remove the citizenship question from the Census 2020 form. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Hmong American Census Network
* Pew Research Center, 2018-7-4, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/fact-sheet/asian-americans-hmong-in-the-u-s/
** Advancing Justice, AAJC, 2018-7-4, https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/press-release/advancing-justice-aajc-appeals-congress-stop-citizenship-question-census
^ ScientificAmerican, 2018-7-4, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-the-us-census-b/
^^ Joplin Globe, 2018-7-4, http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/missouri-agriculture-grant-to-help-area-hmong-farmers/article_a16b2767-c0e3-5b99-8db5-b78503b325dc.html
