USA TODAY - More Kids In U.S. BORN TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS - Should Mexico Start Paying?

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."


Report: More kids in
U.S. born to illegal
immigrants

Updated 20m 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.

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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."