Udall, Heinrich Announce Census Director Visiting New Mexico

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 13, 2019) – At the urging of U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham will visit New Mexico later this month to discuss ensuring accurate counts for the upcoming 2020 Decennial Census.

In February, Udall and Heinrich sent a letter inviting Director Dillingham to visit the state to share how the Bureau is taking adequate steps to count underrepresented communities and address the unique data collection challenges in New Mexico.

More details about Director Dillingham’s visit will be released as they become available.

Udall and Heinrich issued the following joint statement:

“We are pleased that Director Dillingham has accepted our invitation to tour New Mexico and look forward to a productive visit. We all have a stake in ensuring an accurate count in the 2020 Census. An undercount would have devastating effects in our state, namely a reduction in New Mexico’s proportional representation in Congress and a reduction in our fair share of federal funding – potentially by hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Our state has rich diversity and we must ensure that all underrepresented communities, including rural and tribal communities, colonias, all non-English and limited-English speakers, and children are counted. Limited access to broadband and difficulties contacting multiple families and homes co-located on a single tract of land that lack individualized mailing addresses are some of the unique data collection challenges in New Mexico that must be taken into consideration. An on-site visit from the Bureau’s team will serve as an opportunity to meet with various stakeholders to discuss these and other challenges and to develop solutions for hard-to-count areas.”