Avoiding a Census Undercount with Mayor Pro Tem Alejandra Chavez

Mayor Pro Tem Alejandra Chávez from the City of El Paso, TX, discusses the consequences of a Census undercount and how cities can prepare ahead of 2030.

For more information, visit us at nlc.org.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Welcome back to Cities Speak. I'm your host, Dante Moreno, the Legislative Manager of Finance Administration and Intergovernmental Relations at the National League of Cities. Cities Speak gives listeners an insider's view of what local leadership in America means today and features conversations with government leaders and policy experts regarding the biggest issues and challenges facing America's cities, towns, and villages. Our guest today is Alejandro Chavez, the mayor pro tem of El Paso, Texas. A native El Pasoan whose roots in the community run deep. Before entering public service, she built a thriving restaurant from a four-table operation into a beloved El Paso institution over two decades, earning recognition as the SBA Women and Business Champion of the Year along the way. Today she brings that same commitment to community and economic opportunity to City Hall, where she represents District 1 and advocates for the residents and families who make El Paso home. Mayor Pro Tem Chavez is here with us in Washington, D.C. today, getting ready to present at a congressional briefing focused on the 2020 census under count of young children and its consequences. Before heading to the Hill, she's stopping by the NLC studio to discuss El Paso's census efforts and share why an accurate census count in 2030 is so important. Thank you, Dante. Buenos dias. Buenos días. Before we dive in, can you help uh our listeners understand why we're talking about the census now when the decennial census isn't until 2030?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Well, thank you again for having me. The census is so important. It's such an important conversation to start now because it is definitely gonna determine all of our funding and decision-making process for the next 10 years from 2030 to 2040. The decision needs to start today, the conversation needs to start today, so we can start building trust and partnerships within our local communities and make sure that we have a successful census count overall.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

The trust part is so important, and I think we can get into that a little bit more. Uh, but can you explain why certain folks are undercounted in El Paso? You know, the census aims to count every single person living in America, but every year or every decade you see that there are undercounts in the census.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Yeah, so first I'd like your listeners to understand where El Paso is, right? So we are in West Texas, we are a border community. There are three states and two countries that border El Paso. So definitely it's it's unique in that sense. El Paso also has families that um are multi-generational living together. We also have multi-status families living uh together, and there's also a lot of rural communities, which we call colonias in our city. In our last census in 2020, El Paso was was did very well because we were able to receive a higher rate in our census reporting than the state and national average. And we did that through the partnerships that we developed. Um, but because we have all of these multi-generational families living together or mixed status, uh immigration status uh families living together, this is why it's very difficult. I do want to point out that sometimes these multi-generational families that live together, the abuelitas, the grandmothers, don't know if they should count their grandchildren that are living with them or not. They feel that maybe someone else is going to be counting them, their daughters or their TIAs or someone else will be counting them. So we miss a lot of children along the way when we're doing the census. And it's very important that we uh build trust in those communities, but also educate people on how to fill out those census.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Uh you're mentioning both young children, you're mentioning mixed uh status families that exist in El Paso. Are there any other populations that in 2020, or you know, as we look forward to 2030, that you guys are looking at that might be a challenge to count?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yes. So uh the census report has showed us that young children are are undercounted, um, especially Latino and black children. And this is a concern because the census report is essentially going to tell municipalities, local governments on how to plan for the future, how to plan for parks, how to plan for transportation needs, how to plan for uh healthcare needs, how to plan for housing needs in a community. And when children are undercounted, that doesn't mean that they go away. It just means that they are less visible. And what they need in the future, and as I mentioned, we are we are basically counting what we're gonna need between 2030 and 2040. What those children need in the future doesn't go away. We need to make sure that children are not undercounted. We need to make sure that children still are visible because we need to plan accordingly for the future and we need to plan responsibly. Without knowing exactly what we're planning for, it is difficult to make decisions. Another important thing is it's not only just about children being visible, but it's about municipalities making sure that they are being competitive in their resources, right? In their funding resources. So municipalities are going to be depending on the census to apply for grants and other federal resources and state resources. And so we need to make sure that we know the numbers that are before us so that we can apply for these grants and these resources appropriately.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Thank you for that, Mayor Pratam. And it's so interesting because when I think a lot of people in DC think about the census, they think about their political representation on the Hill. When municipalities think about the census, they're really thinking about how can I make sure that I get the funding I need to uh support the residents that we have. And as you mentioned, that's for children. It's like how do I make sure that they have funding for the school lunch program? How do I make sure they have funding for Head Start and all of these other issues? Um and you mentioned like the it provides funding for roads and bridges and housing and all of these different issues and and of miscount in 2030 will have impacts for, I mean, we say 10 years, but it might be even longer, because once you start uh not supporting your community enough, I feel like that can be like a downhill battle sometimes to get back from. Uh you're in DC today to present at a congressional briefing on the census. What do you think it says that El Paso is bringing this issue directly to Capitol Hill? And what are you hoping that federal leaders and their staff understand about the census that only you as a city can tell them?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Right. So municipalities again rely on this census heavily for resources, right? And for also planning purposes. So we want to make sure that people understand what is really going on at the municipal level. Um, as I mentioned, trust I think is a really important process, part of the process as we start to put together the census. Um, and how do we do that? So I want to talk a little bit about what El Paso did back in 2020. We uh rely heavily on um different organizations, including what we call promotoras, which uh are typically known as community leaders uh in the health aspect that people trust and can communicate with, both um, you know, in terms of language barriers and other things, other factors that may um influence people's ability to reply to that census and to fill out the information that they need to do. So um relying on all of these organizations is important and key people, community leaders in communities so that we can get an accurate census report. El Paso is an example to many other cities in our country, but we do have a very unique perspective because we live on the border. As I mentioned, there are multi-generational families, um, people that have different immigrant statuses, people that have language barriers. We also have a large military base in El Paso, Fort Bliss, and many people don't live on base but rent homes. Sometimes those families also are not counted in the census. Um but what what I do want to point out is that children, Latino and black children, are undercounted in the census. And when they are undercounted, they are less visible, but their needs do not disappear. Their needs remain, and we need to make sure that we are planning for the future accordingly. Again, for affordable housing, for health care needs, for parks, for infrastructure. Any point of the process is so important that we are making sure that we are allocating enough funding for the resources that these people need. Families are are, especially in border communities, in greater need um than in other areas of the country. But I know that this example that I've listed of people being undercounted is prevalent nationwide.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

You mentioned earlier that El Paso had a more accurate count than Texas as a whole. Do you think part of that was because the city invested so much in trust, in outreach, or is there something else that happened that allowed you all to get counted at such a at a higher rate?

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yes, I think those partnerships are extremely important. Um sometimes there is confusion on how to fill out the census. Sometimes uh there is fear because they don't know if their information will remain confidential. Um and sometimes we just uh want to make sure that people feel like they know how the process works. Some people don't have internet access at home. Um also it's important to note that municipalities know very well which neighborhoods are historically undercounted, right? And so getting that information to the state and federal level is important so that we can partner with the state and federal agencies to make sure that we know which historically speaking neighborhoods are being undercounted and focus on those to make sure that with this next census that we don't leave those neighborhoods in the margins.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

I think that's a really good point. And people mention, or when you think about the census, you think about it on the federal level, when it's really the local government's expertise on where do people live, who might be hard to count that really decides whether a census is accurate or not accurate in that community. Uh to bring us back a little bit, uh you may remember that 2020 was a particularly challenging moment. There was a worldwide pandemic, but there was also a lot of confusion and uncertainty around the census itself, whether there was going to be a citizenship question, uh, how long the census was going to go, because it started one month after the pandemic sort of exploded in America. Uming that there was a lot of confusion and uncertainty and unknowingness happening, do you feel like El Paso took anything away from 2020 that you're going to implement again in 2030?

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yes, I think those partnerships are vital to making sure that we have an uh accurate census count. I I think, you know, leaning heavily on faith-based um organizations, um, nonprofit organizations, people like Bromo Toras, like I mentioned, um, and and other community leaders is vital to making sure that we have an appropriate census count, making sure that we identify those neighborhoods that have been historically undercounted, uh, making sure that we approach this uh holistically so that we make sure that you know we can you know speak to people in their language, their their language that they prefer, which in many cases, at least in the border, is it's Spanish. In other areas it might be in a different language, but we want to make sure that you meet people where they are so that they know that they can trust the process. Uh, trust, I think, is just as important as access when it comes to filling out the census. So we need to start building that trust today so that when we do get to 2030, we we have all the tools necessary and all the organizations ready to go to help us in this process.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

You mentioned 2030, that's sort of the big number in census. As we're looking there and and communities are deciding how and when to start preparing. Do you have any advice for city leaders that are listening today on on a timeline on what they could do to start preparing their own communities for the census?

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Right. Well, it starts at the municipal level, right? Municipal government is is going to be at the forefront of these conversations because, like I said, it's not just about visibility, but it's also going to be a fight for access to resources, right? The way to get access to those resources is going to be through these counts. That is how you become competitive when you apply for a grant or any type of federal uh resource that you may be looking for. So it is up, I think, to the municipality to start today. You know, we're in 2026. If you start in 2029, you're too late. You need to start organizing today. You need to start identifying those key players in your area to make sure that together you will be able to do all the outreach that's going to be necessary to ensure that your city is going to have an accurate count for the next census. This is a big deal because, like I said, this is going to be a process that's going to be able to identify the correct data that's going to allow for planning up until 2040. So we want to make sure that we get it right. I think the the last thing I want to share is uh a single message that every child counts. And every child deserves to be visible so that we can plan accordingly for that child's needs in our future. Um and that we just have to be cognizant of the fact that not every family in our country fits into a government form. And as long as we have awareness about that, we can definitely change our approach in making sure that we're building the trust and doing the work that's necessary so that we have an accurate count in our next census.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Thank you so much for stopping by Cities Speak, Mayor Pro Tem. Uh, Chavez, this was absolutely amazing. It was wonderful to hear about this. I think uh the census is one of those things that is so critically important but happens once a decade. So it can really get kind of pushed to the side until, oh no, we're in 2030, what do we do now? Uh we really appreciate you sharing El Paso's census experiences and helping us understand what's at stake for cities, for families, for communities as we look ahead to 2030. Uh to our listeners, if you'd like to learn more about the 2030 census, including how cities can start preparing, you can visit nlc.org slash census to view our resources or email census at nlc.org with any questions. Thank you so much, Mayor Pro Tem. Gracias, Anthony.

NLC 15:19

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