Los Angeles Times - 06.08.2019

$2.75DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER © 2019 WSCE TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019 latimes.com

LAREDO, Texas — Jean-
ette Silva still hasn’t decided
what she will do when a cen-
sus packet arrives at her
home a few miles from the
banks of the Rio Grande.
The 40-year-old pastor
feels conflicted — torn be-
tween what she sees as the
benefits it could offer her
community, including her
daughter, along with the po-
tential risks for her undocu-
mented husband.
“My little girl will have
more support,” said Silva of
the couple’s 4-year-old,
Deborah. “But there is al-
ways an uneasiness, a fear —
especially right now — of fed-
eral officials.”
Last month, as a result of
a U.S. Supreme Court ruling,

President Trump aban-

doned his efforts to add a

citizenship question to next

year’s census. Now activists

nationwide are campaign-

ing to assure immigrants it is

safe to participate in the

once-a-decade tally that de-

termines how federal money

and power is apportioned.

But many here fear that

irreparable harm already

has been done, and they are

bracing for a record under-

count.

Among the groups most

at risk of not being fully tal-

lied are children younger

than 5. For decades, the U.S.

Census Bureau has strug-

gled to count that demo-

graphic. In 2010, roughly 2

million were omitted, more

than any other age group.

The problem is more se-

vere for Latino children, who

ERICK ARRIAGA,5, walks along the Rio Grande in Laredo, which is bracing for a census undercount.

Photographs byCallaghan O’HareFor The Times

‘As American as any child’

[SeeCensus,A8]

Defunct citizenship query may still lead to Latino undercount

By Kurtis Lee and
Sandhya Kambhampati

PASTORJeanette Silva speaks with her daughter,

Deborah, 4, after a church service. Latino children

under 5 are at high risk of being missed in the census.

T

he 12-year-old girl sat on the

bottom bunk bed where her

older sister, Keyla Salazar,

used to sleep.

Lyann Salazar held a pencil

in one hand and, in the other, an iPhone

displaying a picture of Keyla. She drew a

portrait of Keyla on a blank page of her

notebook.

Lyann and Keyla used to share the

small bedroom in their San Jose home,

but now Lyann sleeps there alone, with

just Keyla’s Chihuahua, Lucky, to com-

fort her.

“She’s drawing and writing to her

sister to give her a last goodbye,” the

sisters’ grandmother, Betzabe Vargas

Fabes, said in Spanish.

Keyla was one of three people shot to

death last week at the Gilroy Garlic Festi-

val, and in a few days her family would

gather for her funeral.

Lyann looked up from the bed, but

remained silent as she sketched outlines

of her sister’s face.

The room was simple, just how Keyla

liked it.

Scattered about were reminders of

Keyla: A pink

FAMILY and friends release butterflies on what would have been Keyla

Salazar’s 14th birthday. She was fatally shot at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Francine OrrLos Angeles Times

[SeeKeyla,A7]

COLUMN ONE

‘She took my hand and

looked up at the sky’

They heard the shots — and then Keyla was gone

By Giulia McDonnell

Nieto del Rio

reporting from san jose

KEYLAhad autism, which affected

her in school. But she persevered.

Kamala Harris was dis-
traught as she stood before
an audience one morning in
July 2016. In the previous
three days, violence involv-
ing police had rattled the na-
tion.
Officers had shot and
killed one black man in
Baton Rouge, La., and an-
other in his car outside Min-
neapolis as his horrified girl-
friend and her toddler
watched. At a protest
against those shootings, a
sniper had killed five Dallas
police officers.
“I have to tell you, my
heart is breaking,” Harris
said at a meeting on racial
bias in policing. Her voice
wavered.
“As a prosecutor, my
heart is breaking. As the top
law enforcement officer in

this state. And as a black

woman.”

Harris, then California

attorney general, paid trib-

ute to officers whose families

pray they stay out of danger.

She also said she’d never

known a black man who

wasn’t racially profiled or

unfairly stopped.

It was an unusually frank

acknowledgment of the

forces pulling her in opposite

directions in the two years

since police killings of black

men had set off demon-

strations across the country

and fueled the Black Lives

Matter movement.

Seeking to reconcile the

competing demands of po-

lice and civil rights groups,

Harris tried to avoid inflam-

ing either side. That rela-

tively safe approach has left

her open to criticism that

she could have done more to

lead California’s efforts to

limit police use of lethal

force.

Harris did make tangible

advances in police account-

ability. She focused on pro-

grams inside the attorney

On racial bias in

policing, Harris

walked a tightrope

As state’s attorney

general, she was seen

as ‘a modest reformer.’

By Melanie Mason
and Michael Finnegan

[SeeHarris,A12]

WASHINGTON — In a

solemn address from the

White House on Monday,

President Trump con-

demned the gunmen who

carried out two deadly mass

shootings over the weekend

and the racism that motivat-

ed one of them — but

stopped short of calling for

stricter gun laws to prevent

future attacks.

“These barbaric slaugh-

ters are an assault upon our

communities, an attack

against our nation and a

crime against all of human-

ity,” Trump said. “Hate has

no place in America. In one

voice, our nation must con-

demn racism, bigotry and

white supremacy.”

As the death toll rose to 31

from the twin shootings in El

Paso and Dayton, Ohio, a di-

visive president who regu-

larly issues harsh anti-immi-

grant rhetoric — and who

has often retweeted state-

ments and images from

known white supremacists

— struggled to comfort a

grieving, inflamed nation.

Reading from a tele-

prompter, Trump vowed to

act “with urgent resolve” to

end the uniquely American

epidemic of mass shootings,

blaming the internet, violent

video games and mental

health problems as contrib-

uting factors.

But Trump pointedly did

not endorse rising calls for

stricter laws to keep guns

out of the hands of likely kill-

ers, and did not call for Con-

gress to return from summer

recess to consider new re-

forms.

He instead held the indi-

vidual shooters responsible,

describing one as “wicked”

Trump blames

bigotry — but

not gun policy

He tries to comfort a grieving nation

but doesn’t back calls for stricter laws

By Eli Stokols

[SeeTrump, A6]

WASHINGTON — The

U.S.-China trade war took a

dangerous turn for the

worse Monday as Beijing al-

lowed its currency to weaken

and said it was halting new

American farm purchases,

sending U.S. stocks into a

tailspin and heightening

risks of a global economic

downturn.

The Chinese actions were

seen as retaliation after

President Trump last

Thursday abruptly an-

nounced plans to impose

new 10% tariffs next month

on an additional $300 billion

of Chinese goods, despite

having declared a truce in

late June.

Then later in the after-

noon, the U.S. Treasury De-

partment formally labeled

China a “currency manipu-

lator,” reversing years of

avoiding the designation so

as not to antagonize Beijing.

“This is quite an inflam-

matory step, there’s no

doubt about it,” said Fred

Bergsten, founding director

of the Peterson Institute for

International Economics.

Even though U.S. and

Chinese trade officials met

last week and had scheduled

more talks for next month,

the renewed escalation

dimmed hopes for a near-

term deal and threatened to

bring another potent weap-

on into the confrontation:

national currencies.

“The move from retalia-

tory tariffs to currency de-

preciation now threatens to

become part of the U.S.-

China trade war and will im-

pact trading partners,” said

Joseph Brusuelas, chief

economist at RSM, a tax and

consulting firm.

Beijing on Monday let its

yuan fall in value to its lowest

level against the dollar in

more than a decade. The ex-

change rate breached a kind

of psychological threshold in

hitting 7 yuan to the dollar. A

weaker yuan would make

Chinese exports cheaper for

U.S. buyers, potentially

blunting the effects of higher

U.S. tariffs.

U.S.-CHINA

TRADE

BATTLE

JUST GOT

RISKIER

Beijing allows its

currency to weaken,

pummeling stocks and

raising concerns about

the global economy.

By Don Lee

[SeeTrade, A9]

■■■ ELECTION 2020■■■

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