New estimates show that the number of babies born to immigrants in the United States illegally has been steadily decreasing over the last several years.
Data collected by the Pew Research Center shows that close to 300,000 babies were born to parents in the U.S. illegally in 2013 — 8 percent of the nearly 4 million births in the U.S. that year. This is a drop from the peak in 2007 when they made up 9 percent of total births.
Pew research finds this change follows the overall population trends of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, whose numbers grew immensely from 1980 to the mid-2000s, but have fallen since then.
A baby born in the U.S. is automatically granted citizenship by the 14th Amendment. Several of the Republican presidential candidates have called for an end to birthright citizenship, saying it attracts illegal immigration.
Pew shows that immigrants in the U.S. illegally are more likely to be long-term residents than in the past, and therefore have a greater possibility of living with children born in the U.S. According to Pew, in 2012 there were 4.5 million U.S.-born children living with parents who are in the U.S. illegally.
