Paterson could suffer under Trump census plan targeting immigrants
By: Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press
PATERSON - All sorts of statistics tell the story of the city as a home for immigrants.
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Nearly two-thirds of half 30,000 student in Paterson Public Schools live in homes where English is not the main language spoken among their families, for instance.
..... Meanwhile, nearly half of Paterson's 156,419 residents were born in a foreign country, according to the Census Reporter website.
..... Their immigrant heritage is a source of great pride to most Patersonians. But it has also put the city on the Trump administration's dartboard, such as in the lawsuit filed in May [2025] against Mayor Andre Sayegh - and officials in other New Jersey cites - accusing them of not cooperating with Homeland Security immigration crackdowns.
..... Now President Donald Trump is talking about doing something hat could reduce federal funding for Paterson's already-cash-strapped school district and municipal government: redoing the United States census count without including undocumented immigrants.
..... Census populations factors into the formulas sued for federal education funding for local school districts and for municipal health department programs. Several Paterson officials said they don't expect Trump to be successful in revising the way the census counts people. After all, he ran into court challenges that stopped his efforts to do pretty much the same thing five years ago.
..... Representative Nellie Pou, a Democrat who represents Paterson in Congress, called the census "a foundational element of America."
..... "The Constitution requires the census to count all persons living in an area, not just citizens or legal residents," Pou said. "Fair representation is built on a fair census - and this is precisely why the president is targeting it.
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"To corrupt the census in the way the administration is now describing would cost our communities and our state significant resources, and it would be another blow to our already weakened democracy," Pou said.
..... The silk city's population of Dominican immigrants has exploded during the past tow decades, putting Paterson among the top five areas in the country for that community.
..... Paterson's 1st and 2nd wards are home to the Bangladeshi community, its 3rd ward has a Jamaican enclave, and the 6th Ward is where thousands of Palestinians live. Paterson also has sizable Peruvian, Colombian and Turkish communities.
..... How many Paterson residents lack immigration documents? There are no official numbers. But community leaders estimate there are easily thousands of foreign-born people in Patisserie who fit the "undocumented" definition.
..... "In Paterson, a city built by immigrants, every voice matters and every person deserves to be counted, said Councilman Shahin Khalique, who in 2016 begin the second Bangladeshi American elected to the municipal government body.
..... Khalique said excluding undocumented immigrants form the census would undermine the city's ability to get the federal funding it needs for schools, health care and housing.
Paterson's $25M in federal school aid tied to census numbers
..... Census population numbers are used to calculate federal Title I funding for local school districts to provide education to children in poverty. The Paterson school district has received an annual average of almost $25 million in Title I money form the federal education Department over the past three years.
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Paterson Board of Education President Eddie Gonzalez said the census should not be used as a political issue against immigrants, calling it a question of fairness.
..... "To purposely undercount our community would mean we lost out on millions of dollars in federal aid and threaten our fair share of political representation," Gonzalez said.
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Councilman Luis Velez, who represents the 5th Ward and its large Dominican population, said local officials cannot bar children without immigrant papers from city schools. Last year, [2024] the New Jersey Education Department issued a memo reminding principals, registrars and nurses that they are barred from even asking about students; immigration status.
..... "When people come to us for help, we don't ask to see their papers, we don't ask about their status," Velez stated. "We give them the help they need."
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Many local officials did not respond to a reporter's inquiries about the issue, including Assemblyman Al Abdelaziz, council members Alex Mendez, Maritza Davila and MD Forid Uddin, and the mayor.
..... Five years ago, Sayegh served as Paterson's census cheerleader at events that essentially were pep rallies to encourage residents to participate in the population count. The mayor achieved his goal of having the city surpass the 150,000 mark in population, the threshold needed to be designated a "city of the first calls," which Sayegh said would generate extra funding.
..... State Senator Benjie Wimberly called Trump's proposal "ridiculous."
..... "It just doesn't fit what America is supported to be," Winberly said. "the melting pot. The Statue of Liberty."