Julie Menin speaks on the latest with the U.S. Census

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New York City Director of the Census Julie Menin has something to say. She sat down for an interview with NYN Media this week to discuss the city’s efforts to boost turnout in the upcoming 2020 Census, which will determine billions of dollars in federal funding as well as the city’s future representation in Congress.

Menin was on hand last week when the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by a coalition of state attorneys general. They argue that the Trump administration’s attempts to include a citizenship question is illegal and would drive down participation by undocumented immigrants, latinos and others fearful of commenting on their residency status. While a ruling by the court will not happen until later in the year, there is still plenty the city can do to prepare for the census, Menin said.

The city’s plans are still in the works, but an announcement is coming in the next few weeks on how approximately $20 million in funding will be used in partnership with the nonprofit sector, Menin said.

What is one key point?

“The best way to resist Trump is to take the five minutes and fill out the census,” Menin said. “That is the only way that we are going to ensure that communities get their fair share of funding political representation and the political representation that they deserve.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You were at the U.S. Supreme Court last week to see oral arguments in the case concerning the citizenship question. What are the chances of preventing that from being included in the upcoming census?

We believe very strongly that the law and facts of the case are on our side. With that said, obviously, the conservative justices on the Supreme Court had questions about some aspects of the case so we'll see where we are in the end. We believe that the question is unlawful and that it is a clear violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. There was absolutely no basis whatsoever for (U.S. Commerce Secretary) Secretary Ross, to have included the question.

Besides this case, what else is going on in your job overseeing New York City’s census outreach?

I have two jobs. One is obviously as the census director. The second is as executive assistant corporation counsel at the law department. It's incredibly important that we make sure that people understand what's at stake with regard to the census.

First, there is the funding piece. It's almost $800 billion a year of federal funds that the federal government allocates to cities and states across the country, for everything from public education, public housing, Medicaid, senior centers. Dozens and dozens and dozens of programs depend on an accurate census count.

Then of course, there's the political representation piece – which is a real dire consequence – because the Trump administration clearly added this question to try to intimidate immigrant communities and communities of color throughout our city. We want to mobilize all New Yorkers behind the census and explain what is at stake.

How are the city, the state and nonprofits working together on this?

The state allocated $20 million to the census. The city is allocating $22 million. Coupled with $4 million from fiscal year 2019 that is rolling over there is a total of $26 million for census. We plan on disseminating grants to community organizations all across the city, because it is really those community organizations that are the trusted voice in their community. That’s going to be incredibly important as we encourage everyone be counted and that the people understand what's at stake in terms of filling out the census.

Certainly, depending on if the citizenship question is on or off, we have to do extensive outreach in immigrant communities all across the city, and also really focus on language access. That's going to be a very important part of this as well. So we plan on really creating a comprehensive community outreach plan and a media plan as well. That’s going to be everything from TV ads, radio ads, newspapers, digital to make sure that we're spreading the word all throughout. The bottom line is, we want to make sure that every New Yorkers counted. We're going to be making an announcement specifically about nonprofits so I'm going to save any comment on that.

What’s one big takeaway?

The message that we really want to make sure that New Yorkers are hearing loud and clear is that in 2010, the city had a 61.9% self response rate. So during the eight weeks of the census – when people self respond as opposed to when someone comes and knocks on your door – the city's response rate was 61.9%. The borough of Brooklyn had an average response rate of 54% – one of the lowest in the country. The national average is 76%.

So all of this funding was left on the table, we cannot have that situation repeat itself. And what the Trump administration is trying to do by inserting the citizenship question is to defund progressive cities like New York, and move that funding to “Red States” that don't have large immigrant populations. This is really an insidious ploy to defund New York out of its fair share, and also to disenfranchise communities out of their fair political representation.