Report: 5% of kids in U.S. born to illegal immigrants

Updated 4m ago
By Alan Gomez, USA TODAY

Four million children in the U.S. were born of illegal immigrant parents but were granted U.S. citizenship because they were born on American soil, according to a report released today.

Those children represented about 5% of all the children in the U.S. under the age of 18 in 2009, according to the report from the Pew Hispanic Center. That percentage will increase in the future, however, as an estimated 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the U.S. in 2008 — about 8% — came from illegal immigrant parents, the report says.

The study comes as some legislators, including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., 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, which wants lower levels of legal and illegal immigration, said automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. is one of the two main magnets for illegal immigration.

IMMIGRATION DEBATE: One Ariz. town speaks up
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: Leaving U.S. also risky
AFTER ARIZONA: States rethink illegal immigrant bills
FULL COVERAGE: Immigration policy

Dane said many illegal immigrants are searching for jobs. But he said many others come to have an "anchor baby" that is entitled to a wide array of government benefits and can eventually help the parents become citizens as well. He calls the practice a "corruption of the rule of law."

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which supports a process for some illegal immigrants to become citizens, said stripping away birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants would be a colossal mistake.

"It puts the United States of America on the brink of legalizing apartheid," he said. "To take such an extreme move and create a permanent population without a nation is scary."

Noorani said some people have always fought for a change to the 14th Amendment's birthright clause but he has been shocked to see how it is suddenly being embraced by high-ranking members of Congress. He thinks the upcoming November elections are the reason.

"This is a pathetic attempt to gin up a (voting) base," he said. "This is political fear-mongering."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/201 ... renl_N.htm