Census Bureau Triples Phone Lines for Latinos

The U.S. Census Bureau acknowledged Monday that it was unable to answer an avalanche of telephone inquiries over the weekend from Spanish-speaking residents seeking census questionnaires written in their native language.

As a result, census officials decided to more than triple the number of lines in their nationwide telephone network.

On Friday and Saturday, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sent angry correspondence to the bureau’s headquarters in Suitland, Md., demanding that something be done to clear the special toll-free telephone lines for the Spanish-speaking, who must contact the agency to order census forms in Spanish.

Officials with MALDEF, a Los Angeles-based Latino-rights organization, said they monitored the Census Bureau’s telephone network by making phone calls in eight cities--Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco and Tucson. The result was almost always a busy signal, they said.

“This is a fiasco,” said Berta Saavedra, MALDEF’s California census coordinator. “We’re really concerned that anyone Spanish-speaking who wants a form is going to have trouble getting one. We’re concerned they will become frustrated and decide just not to bother with the census.”

The Census Bureau handles the bulk of the Spanish calls at processing centers in San Diego and Jacksonville, Fla., according to Larry Bryant, a bureau spokesman at the regional office in Van Nuys. In addition, the San Diego office answers most of the phone calls from residents across the United States who speak Asian languages like Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean.

“We do not have an unlimited number of lines,” Bryant said. “But it is our intention to serve anyone that calls. . . . The key is to respond, and that is what we have done.”

Bryant said bureau officials knew that they had a problem on their hands when “the phones started ringing.” And ringing.

Officials at MCI Telecommunications Corp., which is handling the telephone network for the census, said it appears that the problem stemmed simply from a lack of lines.

“I don’t think the bureau quite expected the reaction they got on these Spanish-language lines,” said Michelle Payer, an MCI spokeswoman. “There was simply not enough capacity for all those calls to reach their destinations.”

Originally, the San Diego office had been outfitted with 19 phone lines to handle calls from Spanish-speaking residents nationwide, Bryant said. By Monday, the agency had expanded the phone system to 60 lines in San Diego, he said. The toll-free lines are open each day of the week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until April 15, when the hours will be cut back.

The original predictions of how many people would use the toll-free phone system were based on projections from the 1980 census, Bryant said.

“What we couldn’t figure in was the impact of the media getting the word out,” he said. “And this was the first time we had a toll-free system. That was a gray zone.”

Officials at MALDEF are eager to ensure that Latino residents in the United States are counted in the census, which is used to determine political apportionment and how more than $70 billion in federal funds are distributed.

In decades past, Latinos and other minority groups have typically been undercounted by the census at a higher percentage than whites. To combat that trend, Santa Ana officials Monday urged a gathering of 200 Asian-American leaders to make sure their constituencies are properly accounted for. Councilman Miguel A. Pulido Jr. and others told the crowd to take out newspaper ads, go door-to-door in their neighborhoods--do whatever it takes--to get Asian-Americans counted.

Arturo Vagas, MALDEF’s national census program director, said his organization has also been encouraging participation in the census, which made the phone tie-up especially frustrating. “We’re just hoping people don’t just give up,” he said. “This is not an assistance line; it’s the only way they have to order a form in Spanish.”

The bureau also has 45 lines staffed in San Diego for six Asian languages, Bryant said. Although no additional lines were added because of demand over the weekend, there has been a shortage of workers in Santa Ana to handle calls from people who speak Thai or Laotian, census officials said.

Fernando Tafoya, manager of the bureau’s Santa Ana office, said he currently has only eight of the 28 people that will be needed to staff the lines. But he said efforts are under way to recruit the necessary work force. The jobs pay $6.75 an hour.

“By the weekend, I think we’ll be set,” he said. “A lot of people who speak these different languages already have full-time jobs and receive much better pay. We’re going to have to track down those individuals who want to serve their community.”