NEW YORK (TIP): U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) announced that she sent a letter to U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham urging him to include the South Asian community in the Census Bureau’s outreach leading up to the 2020 Decennial Census.

The Census Bureau—through its 2020 Census Paid Media Campaign—is presently conducting outreach in English and numerous other languages including: Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Tagalog, Polish, French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Japanese. But the South Asian population is not included despite growing in size from 3.5 million in 2010 to approximately 5.4 million today.

“I’m shocked that the Census Bureau failed to include the South Asian community in its outreach leading up to the 2020 Decennial Census,” said Congresswoman Meng. “There are approximately 5.4 million South Asians currently residing in the United States, including many in my Congressional district in Queens, and I cannot emphasize enough how imperative it is that we have an accurate count of all living individuals. Director Dillingham must correct this error and immediately include the South Asian population. We have less than a year before the census begins on April 1, 2020.”

“Communities and neighborhoods across the nation have a lot to lose if we fail to engage the South Asian community in our census outreach,” said Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation. “Our census media efforts must reflect the future we want for our country which requires us to go beyond the bare minimum to achieving full inclusion in our outreach. We must make every effort to ensure that everyone counts!”