1 in 12 US Babies Born to Illegal Immigrants

One out of every 12 babies born in the US are born to illegal immigrants, according to a new study. Undocumented immigrants make up just over 4% of the American adult population, but their babies made up 8% of all births in the US in 2008, according to the report by the Pew Hispanic Center. The Washington organization is nonpartisan, but the figures will likely fuel conservatives' calls to withdraw the automatic granting of US citizenship to everyone born in America.

Pew also found that 79% of the 5.1 million children of illegal immigrants living in the US last year were born in the country and are therefore citizens, notes the Wall Street Journal. "Unauthorized immigrants are younger than the rest of the population, are more likely to be married and have higher fertility rates than the rest of the population," said Pew demographer Jeffrey Passel. Some 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the US; Latinos account for 75% of that figure, and about 85% of the births of that population.
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