Napolitano: No need to stop raids on illegals for 2010 census

Immigration officials don't need to slow or halt raids to round up people here illegally during the 2010 census to get an accurate count of Arizonans, Gov. Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.

The governor acknowledged it is important for a border state like Arizona to get an accurate count of everyone here, legal or otherwise. That is because a host of issues are contingent on the state's population, ranging from federal dollars to the number of representatives in Congress.

And the Pew Center for Hispanic Studies believes those here illegally make up somewhere between 6.7 and 7.5 percent of the state population.

The Census Bureau already asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement to scale back their activities during the decennial count amid fears some people would be reticent to answer their doors, much less respond to queries from federal officials. At this point the official response from ICE is "no.''

Napolitano said the question of raids versus an accurate count is a "false dichotomy.''

She said the Census Bureau can go out and count heads "and then augment those with some of the statistically based methods that are based in science for going from 'actual' count to `real' count,'' the governor said.

Napolitano said federal officials already do that.

"You can't ever count everybody all the time because people move around,'' she said.

"I may be sitting in this desk when the census taker is here,'' the governor continued. "But I may be on vacation somewhere else, or I may have just moved to another house, or I may just have relocated to another town.''

The viewpoint is not unanimous.

Other Arizona officials think ICE should back off -- at least during the time census takers are knocking on doors.

"This community is what it is,'' said Douglas Mayor Ray Borane. He said ICE should back off -- at least during the time census takers are knocking on doors.

Borane said he could not put a figure on how many of his community's approximately 17,000 residents are in this country illegally. But he said the percentage is "significant.''

But Sierra Vista Mayor Bob Strain said he doesn't think suspension of ICE raids will make any difference.

"I think if I were in their position and wanted to remain hidden or anonymous, it wouldn't matter whether enforcement pressure had diminished or not,'' said Strain who believes his city has a "more than average'' number of people not here legally. "I think I would not talk to the census person.''

Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn, responding through a spokesman, said one way communities can assure an accurate count is to go out and actively tell residents to cooperate with census takers.

Jim Phipps said Dunn believes even people here illegally can be persuaded to respond, both by being told that census officials do not share information with other government agencies and emphasizing that an accurate count means more money for government services.

Yuma Mayor Larry Nelson said it's possible that those here illegally might actually want to respond to the census if they're not afraid of being deported. He said many believe that any future federal immigration measure will include some form of amnesty for those here as of a certain date -- something they hope being recorded on the census might prove.

But Nelson said the fear of answering questions from any federal official may prove stronger.

Cities have their own reason for wanting an accurate count: Their slice of state taxes is based on population.

Census takers do ask respondents whether they and others in the home are U.S. citizens. But they do not ask their legal status.

The Pew Center for Hispanic Studies estimated the number of people in Arizona here in violation of federal immigration laws at between 400,000 and 450,000 as of the 2005 mid-decade census. That translates to between 6.7 percent and 7.5 percent of the state population at that point.