The preparation for the 2012 census has begun, and the head count for Dominicans has not been efficient; there is no category that allows communities in the Bronx to accurately represent the real demography in the borough.

The undercounting results in government benefits not being allocated according to the real needs, asserts Alejandra V. Castillo, manager of legislative matters at the Dominican American National Roundtable (DANR).

For Castillo, another reason that Dominicans are not counted is that the Census goes by address, “so if a house is included in the census, and the basement of the house is being rented, the person living there is not counted,” she says.

In the 2000 Census, the official statistics found that 1 million Dominicans lived in the United States, but several Dominican organizations believe that the actual statistic fluctuates between 1.2 and 1.5 million.

“We think that they undercounted, that they missed between 300,000 and 500,000 Dominicans. In addition, millions of people described themselves as ‘other’ and we do not know what their background is. There were also people who did not check any box. Now we are trying to get the categories as clear as possible. In terms of Dominicans, we want the census to count us as accurately as possible,” says Alejandra Castillo.

Dominicans short-changed

This situation results in the Dominican community, in practice, being absent from the decision making process when elected officials distribute budgetary funds, which ends up with Dominican communities receiving very little in city, state and federal funds.

“Dominicans need ESL programs, job training assistance, programs against domestic violence, among others, but when we don’t know how many of us there are, we don’t know how much we should receive,” says Castillo. “As a nonprofit organization, when I seek financial resources, the first thing they ask me is how many Dominicans there are.”

For example, the Census count serves to design electoral maps, which indicate that in New York there are and should be three Dominican council members; however, “perhaps we should have more Dominican officials because there are more of us in the Bronx, but it’s not happening simply because not all Dominicans have been counted,” says Castillo.

This situation in New York is also true for the rest of the United States. In places like North Carolina, where there are a considerable number of Dominicans, when the Department of ESL plans programs for the community, the same questions are asked, says Castillo.

Alejandra insists that the Dominican community is not like the Puerto Rican or Cuban communities. As many know, there are immigration umbrellas for both. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens since the island is U.S. territory, and Cubans have a special immigration clause that allows them to become permanent residents upon arrival on American soil.

This is no cause for envy on the part of Dominicans, but rather it motivates them to seek more attention so that the issues affecting them do not become impossible to address due to inadequate political representation.

However, Castillo insists that Dominicans should advocate for all communities to be counted effectively, and for all communities that are not currently signified specifically, like Salvadorians, Ecuadorians, Colombians, and Peruvians, to be included.

The Census is a Constitutional mandate

Castillo points out that the need for an effective count is clearly established in the U.S. Constitution. “The requirement of a census is in the birth of the nation, and in the Constitution, which establishes a census every 10 years in which everyone needs to be counted. Some people say that you only have to count residents, and others believe that only citizens should be counted. The Constitution does not specify; it says that we must count everyone,” says Castillo.

The issue of the count is being addressed by the Dominican American National Roundtable because the federal census budget is on the table in 2009, and with the current economic crisis, the $210 million being sought for the 2010 census is in danger of being cut.

Dominican American National Roundtable is an organization founded in 1997 by a group of Dominican political, community, and business leaders who thought they should have a voice before the federal government.

The organization began in New York and New Jersey, where the largest Dominican communities in the United States reside, but it also maintains contact with Dominicans in states near and far, such as Alaska, Louisiana, Arizona, and Ohio.