U.S. Census Bureau spokesman Efren Salinas is interviewed at a colonia outreach event in Little Mexico last Friday.

ALAMO, April 20 - There is still time for residents to submit 2010 Census information by phone via the Census Bureau’s toll-free Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Center.

The Spanish-language hotline number is 866-928-2010. The English-language hotline number is 866-872-6868.

At a colonia outreach event in Little Mexico last Friday, Census Bureau spokesman Efren Salinas told the Guardian, Telemundo and other Rio Grande Valley news outlets providing census information over the phone would only be available until Monday, April 19. He was misinformed. The Bureau corrected itself in a release issued late Monday.

“Households can submit information to the Census Bureau via telephone through July 30,” the news release stated. “The Questionnaire Assistance Centers are open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time. Those who phone in their information can probably expect a visit from a Census worker to verify the address and physical location.”

The news will delight members of the Equal Voice for America’s Families network. The group, which works in colonias across the Rio Grande Valley, only learned last Friday that the phone option existed. When told it would end on Monday they immediately called on the Census Bureau to extend the deadline.

“We are requesting an extension on the 866 number for people to be able to call in and fill out the census by phone because it was never publicized in the hard-to-count communities,” said Anayanse Garza, of the Southwest Workers Union, which is part of the Equal Voice network.

“The hotline could be one of the major ways our community can be counted,” Garza added. “There has been a lot of confusion because the Census forms were never sent to the homes. We are told we will get a visit from a Census worker instead. But, maybe the people are not home when the Census worker comes. We need an extension on that 1-866 number so that we can have a complete count.”

Households in need of a replacement Census questionnaire may call the toll-free line through Wednesday, April 21, the Bureau announced. However, households that mailed back Census questionnaires after April 16 will likely be visited by census workers anyway, beginning in May.

One of the main avenues for information about the form is the 2010 Census Web site, www.2010census.gov, the Census Bureau announced. “It contains a host of information about the 10-question census, including the uses and history of the questions. It also includes form-filling instructions in 59 languages other than English, as well as in-language instructional videos and updates on the latest census news,” the Bureau said, in the statement issued Monday.

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