8463: Border Babies.

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

Few illegal immigrants cross border to give birth

The vast majority of illegal immigrants who had children in the United States in 2010 had entered the country several years earlier, according to a new report.

The Pew Hispanic Center study found that 350,000 babies were born in the U.S. between March 2009 and March 2010 to at least one illegal immigrant parent. Of those parents, 91 percent arrived before 2008.

“It’s real concrete data that I think destroys this notion that immigrant women are crossing the border illegally [to have] babies,” said Angela Kelley of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.

Republican lawmakers in Congress and in more than a dozen states are trying to alter the interpretation of the 14th Amendment so that the children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. are no longer granted citizenship.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe has claimed “hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are crossing U.S. borders to give birth and exploit their child” to obtain citizenship.

Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican, said that even if the number of people crossing over to immediately have a child is small, it’s still a problem.

“It isn’t a big enough deal that we should fix it?” he said. “It’s wrong to reward people for bad behavior.”

Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, which supports a process for some illegal immigrants to become citizens, said a baby born in the United States to illegal immigrant parents must wait until he or she is 21 to sponsor their parents for citizenship.

Illinois has an estimated illegal immigrant population of about 525,000, according to the study.