Study: 4M U.S.-born kids of illegal immigrants reside in USA

02:07 PM

About 4 million children in the United States -- or around 5% of all Americans under the age of 18 in 2009 -- were born in the U.S. of illegal immigrant parents, according to a new report issued today.

The study by the Pew Hispanic Center finds that the offspring of illegal immigrants accounted for about 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the USA in 2008.

Click here to read the full report

The study comes as some legislators, including Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are calling for a revision of the 14th Amendment that grants automatic citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, calls the automatic grant of citizenship to such children is one of the main magnets for illegal immigration. He says it saddles U.S. taxpayers with bills for Medicaid, education and future medical expenses.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, says stripping away birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants would put the country "on the brink of legalizing apartheid."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... migrants/1