Gov’t launches Census 2000

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio signed an agreement yesterday to undertake a massive headcount on the CNMI population for the first time since 1995 that officials said will determine just how many U.S. citizens and alien workers are there on the island.

This federally-funded census will establish its office next month at the Department of Commerce, but actual field survey will be conducted starting in April next year until September, according to Commerce Sec. Frankie B. Villanueva.

Statistics from the 11-month census, such as age trend of the current population, household income and other basic figures that are part of the questionnaire, will be released by late 2000 after data are processed in Washington D.C.

“It is very important because we want to make sure how many people are there on the island and how many are U.S. citizens, how many are nonresidents, permanent residents and from ethnic groups,” Tenorio said after signing the accord.

Called Census 2000, the $3.5 million program is also expected to guide U.S. policy-makers regarding education and health assistance as well as infrastructure grants to the Northern Marianas.

Federal officials have relied heavily on the 1995 census data to support their efforts to federalize labor and immigrations functions on the island, citing that U.S. citizens have been outnumbered by alien workers.

That census placed the population of the CNMI at approximately 60,000, more than half of which were foreign workers — a number that island leaders maintain has dropped over the last two years due to restrictions on the entry of nonresidents as well as non-renewal of existing contracts.

Sohale Samari, Census 2000 area manager, said, however, the large pool of fresh information will be used by the government, both local and federal, in policy planning.

“That information goes to our government and our government will plan accordingly,” he said in a news conference at the Governor’s Office.

Samari, however, assured all the information provided by an individual will be kept confidential. “Neither immigration officials nor tax people will have access to that information. That census is a completely independent operation and by law there’s confidentiality on all the information.”

Villanueva also underscored the employment opportunities to be created by the program to help the economy as about 550 jobs will be open to U.S. citizens and residents of the CNMI to fill such positions as enumerators, supervisors and management.

Application forms are available at the DOC office in Capitol Hill. Basic requirements for potential applicants include police clearance and knowledge of different languages that make up the local population while management positions will require supervisory skills.