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With the deadline to return the census forms quickly approaching, local community leaders got a special visit Thursday from the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke who gave them a pep talk on the importance of responding to the count, regardless of people's immigration status or living arrangements.

Many census workers report having a tough time convincing new and illegal immigrants to fill out the forms while others say people with multiple families in a dwelling are sometimes undercounting how many people are living there.

"We don't care if people are here legally or illegally whether they are a registered voter or have never voted before in their lives we don't care. We just need to get a count of the people living here in America," Locke said.

The government and local leaders are worried about a serious undercount in places that traditionally have low counts. But there is growing concern that areas like Middle Village, Ridgewood and Maspeth -- which used to have healthy participation rates -- may not this time around because of changing demographics.

"I was quite surprised to hear it but after thinking about it I realize that we have a large large number of immigrants who have come to the area," said Maspeth Town Hall Executive Director Eileen Reilly.

"We have a large Polish community that now lives there. We have some Latino community members in there now. So it's a little bit of a challenge," said Census New York Regional Director Tony Farthing.

It's a challenge that has to be met if the city is going to get all the federal financial help it deserves.

"The 2010 census will determine the distribution of some $400 million a year in federal funds for the next 10 years. That's $2,300 per person per year here in the New York area," Locke said.

Officials also say the more people counted, the stronger their political representation.

"We want to see every person who could be possibly counted counted so that we have the proper representation of state, local and federal governments," said Congressman Joseph Crowley.

The deadline to return U.S. Census forms is April 15th. If you don't send it in by the end of the month, a census worker might come knocking on your door. They're scheduled to start doing that in May.