Texas is expected to have gained about 4.5 million residents between 2010 and 2020, thanks in large part to the growth of the native-born Latino population and migration from other states.

But some worry that growth will only guarantee more representation in Congress, and more federal dollars for public programs, if the state’s population is accurately counted during the 2020 U.S. Census.

That’s why groups and some elected officials are calling on state leaders to form and invest in a statewide complete count committee to amass a media and education campaign that would inform the public about the need to be counted in 2020.

Vehicles approach the Interstate 635 and 75 South Central Expressway split in Dallas, Texas on Friday, February 15, 2019. (Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

Luis Figueroa, legislative and policy director for the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities, said that such a committee could increase participation among immigrants and communities of color.

Figueroa added that he’d like to see the state’s leaders invest about $6 million to $10 million for census purposes and move a bit faster in forming a statewide effort.

“Once 2020 hits, you don’t want to be planning. You want to be in the implementation stages,” Figueroa said. “Regardless of the controversies, we don’t want Texas to be left behind.”

Texas could possibly miss out on $300 million a year for public programs if Texas' population is undercounted by just 1 percent, according to an analysis from the GW Institute of Public Policy at George Washington University.

There are also concerns that almost 600,000 children 5 years old and younger are in danger of not being counted in Texas during the census, due to various factors such as concerns from their parents related to immigration status, homelessness or poverty.

State Rep. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, said that needs to be prevented and there needs to be more participation in the census from border communities and hard-to-count urban areas.

Blanco has filed a bill that would create a complete count committee, allocate funds for outreach through the secretary of state's office, and create a grant program under the governor's office for communities that applied for help in rolling out information campaigns.

But Blanco said he wants strengthening census efforts across the state to be bipartisan, so he seeks to secure a Republican sponsor in the state Senate.

“My role as a legislator is trying to remove the politics of this and focus on getting a bipartisan bill and focusing on what the need is in terms of federal dollars,” Blanco said. “We’ll let the judges decide what the constitutionality of [the citizenship question] is. I’m focused on what it means for our state in terms of dollars, electoral votes and members of Congress.”

But Texas GOP chairman James Dickey said he doesn’t believe Texas should play an active role in influencing census outcomes because it is constitutionally a responsibility designated for the federal government.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to expend taxpayer resources in a long-shot effort to influence the final census count in some significant way,” he said.

Dickey added that he trusts that Census Bureau officials are keeping a close eye on issues that might keep people from filling out the census questionnaire.

“We of course encourage everyone to participate openly and willingly in the census so we have the best information,” Dickey said.

Blanco said Texas needs to be more proactive like California. The country's largest state stands to lose a congressional seat after a census for the first time ever due to people moving away from the state. Many are leaving for Texas.

California has invested about $100 million in trying to increase participation in the 2020 census.

“Why would we defer any advantage to any state? Like California, Florida and New York, we’re one of the largest states in the country. We should be playing at that same level or better,” Blanco said. “Does it get to $100 million? Maybe, maybe not. But these are the types of conversations we need to be having.”

But the 2020 census is not on Texans’ minds, said Joshua Blank, manager of polling and research at UT-Austin’s Texas Politics Project. He said any push to pass Blanco's bill through the Legislature would have to come from state leaders.

That also isn’t likely as Blank sees it, because there are other legislative priorities such as property tax reform, school finance reform and safety and criminal justice reform that Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders deem more pressing.

The public "doesn’t really understand the census or reapportionment. It happens so infrequently that they then forget about it before it happens again,” Blank said. “It’s not something very salient to those outside the political process.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave his State of the State Address in the House Chamber on Feb. 5, 2019. (Eric Gay / The Associated Press)

Though the citizenship question has dominated the conversation around the census, Texas also has to deal with low civic engagement within Latino and black communities and the undercount of children, said William Frey, a Brookings Institution demographer and census expert.

Adding in concerns about the citizenship question, Frey said, the earlier state and local governments start rolling out educational campaigns about how secure the census is, the more likely they are to have success in counting their population.

“That will be a hard sell if this question is on there, but in the long term, everyone needs to be counted,” Frey said.

Last year, a coalition of Latino civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against the federal government, alleging that the question could cost Texas billions of dollars in funding and put congressional seat gains at risk.

Even in 2010, well before there was any mention of a citizenship question, Texas was already proving hard to count.

A tract-by-tract study of 2010 response rates conducted by Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center of City University of New York showed that in Texas, communities along the border and certain areas in the major metros — Dallas included — were considered "hard to count." These are census tracts that have response rates lower than 73 percent.

The Dallas skyline on Friday morning, Feb. 8, 2019. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

Blanco said these border communities are harder to count because of language barriers and a lack of internet access.

“These are additional layers of challenges that could affect our state’s funding,” Blanco said.

Frey said these barriers are examples of why the census shouldn’t become a political tool.

“People need to know that this is a part of civic engagement. It’s not a political thing. It’s not a partisan thing,” Frey said. “You’re an American and you show up and respond because you deserve to be counted and represented.”