Letter to Dr. Steven Dillingham, Director of the US Census Bureau - Meng Urges Census Bureau to Engage South Asian Community in Run Up to 2020 Census

Letter

Dear Director Dillingham:

We write to urge you to include the South Asian audience in the Census Bureau's plans for the 2020 Census Paid Media Campaign.

The current 2020 Census Paid Campaign targets audiences in English and the following twelve (12) non-English languages: Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Tagalog, Polish, French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Japanese.

With approximately 5.4 million South Asians currently living in the United States, an increase from the 3.5 million counted in the 2010 Census, it is imperative the Census Bureau takes the necessary steps to make sure the United States South Asian population is also accurately counted. These steps include targeting the South Asian audience in the 2020 Census Paid Campaign -- as part of your broader media campaign for minority communities.

As you know, an undercount in the 2020 Decennial Census will have a devastating, decade-long impact across many states and municipalities. Furthermore, inaccuracies and depressed response rates could easily lead to severe population underrepresentation, as well as the misallocation of billions of dollars of federal aid that is distributed to communities each fiscal year. To uphold your duties that were enshrined in our Constitution to count every person living in our country, we strongly urge that your media campaign be inclusive and as extensive as possible to all the various audiences.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Given the timeliness of the Decennial Census, we look forward to your prompt response on the implementation of this request.

Sincerely,

Source