Census Undercount in Colonias?

Trey Martinez Fischer

The Texas House Mexican American Legislative Caucus has filed suit against the state to prevent the use of what it alleges is flawed census data in redistricting. According to the suit, the U.S. Census Bureau heavily promoted its "mail-out, mail-in" strategy for counting residents in 2010, but then decided not to use this method for counting residents of colonias, unincorporated communities that are usually poor, Latino, and often lacking proper infrastructure. Along the border, MALC says, this decision had a "devastating" effect, resulting in an undercount of 4% to 8% of population in the region. Although some growth in Latino political power is inevitable given the huge surge in Texas' Hispanic population reported by the Census Bureau, MALC still worries its community won't get its fair share. "MALC has always been committed to a redistricting process that is fair and representative," said MALC Chair Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, in a press release. "We cannot allow flawed data to dilute the voting rights of the Texas Latino community due to improper processes on the part of the Census Bureau in Texas."