2020 U.S. Census on the Horizon

by Tony Vindell/LFN

Did you know that Cameron County has more than 400,000 people?

Did you also know that every 10 years a new U.S. Census is conducted, and thousands of folks are not included?

And did you know that for every person that is not counted in the census results in thousands of dollars in lost federal funding?

That was the message Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño brought to a recent meeting of the Los Fresnos City Council.

As the county’s highest elected official, he told council members he was there to seek their support in light of the Trump administration’s idea that the new census could ask people if they are U.S. citizens.

A decision has not been made and chances are the U.S. Supreme Court might issue a ruling on the matter.

“This is going to be a technology driven census,” he said. “If the citizenship issue comes up we are afraid there will be an undercount not seen before.”

Treviño said Cameron County has more than 430,000 people, its residents have a median age of 31 years, a household of four and more than 30 percent of its population live below the poverty level.

He said Texas gets about $43 billion every 10 years after a census is held, or $1,578 per person.

However, the state will lose close to $100,000 for every 10 years a person is not counted.

Treviño said Cameron County is fighting the citizenship issue in the courts and waits for a SCOTUS decision possibly by October of this year.

He said it’s important that city, business and church leaders get involved.

Treviño said he was there to ask for the council’s support as the kick off for the census is next March.