Census Officials: Your Personal Information Will Not Be Shared
Every ten years the census bureau tries to count each person living in the United States, and with each count comes some very sensitive information. It’s the census bureau’s job to keep that information safe.
Mariachi music greeted dozens of Lower Valley residents at the Rio Vista Community Center in Socorro this week. It was an opportunity to educate El Pasoans about the 2010 Census.
Several residents said they haven’t filled out their questionnaire because they’re afraid their personal information would be shared with other government agencies. But census officials said sharing that information would be illegal.
“Any census worker is sworn in by oath and can face up to five years in jail if you give out any personal identifiable information that anyone puts on their census form,” says census representative Rebecca Robinson, who adds there are several safety precautions in place.
“Any information that is recorded from this census will not be released to the public for 72 years,” says Robinson.
Local politicians were on hand to explain the importance of filling out their questionnaire. Representative Chente Quintanilla explained about 840,000 people need to be counted in El Paso County.
“There’s been something like 40,000 people that have immigrated from Mexico down here because we need to find them and count them,” said Quintanilla.
He added, “Our infrastructure has to grow; our hospital has to continue to be funded, our schools need to be funded. And if there’s not people advocating for all of those issues, it’s going to be very hard.”
Like the sign states, with or without papers, your voice counts.
If you don’t receive your questionnaire by April 12th, call the questionnaire assistance center at 1-866-872-6868 for English and 1-866-928-2010 for Spanish.
