Fear of government reprisal, prosecution, and deportation are some reasons given by individuals who shy away from answering the census. But not only is the census important, it is also safe. The Census Bureau is strongly committed to confidentiality. By law, the Census Bureau is prohibited from sharing the information on individuals with any person or organization, including the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. There are a variety of reasons why people fail to complete their census forms.
Many people simply have no knowledge of the census.
Language minorities should understand that Census 2000's primary objective is to count everyone living in the U.S., regardless of their citizenship status. Otherwise, the census would not be complete. In March of 2000, each household in the United States will receive a Census 2000 questionnaire. The form will be in English unless the respondent requests one in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, or Korean. Information on how to obtain the questionnaire in these languages will be provided in a letter that goes out in advance of the census.