WASHINGTON, April 14, 2009
Illegal Families Having More Kids In U.S.
Study: Children Of Illegal Immigrants Nearly Twice As Likely To Be Poor Than Kids Of American-Born Parents
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(AP)
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The study released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center highlights a growing dilemma in the immigration debate: Illegal immigrants' children born in the United States are American citizens, yet they struggle in poverty and uncertainty along with parents who fear deportation, toil largely in low-wage jobs and face layoffs in an ailing economy.
The analysis by Pew, a nonpartisan research organization, found that an estimated 11.9 million illegal immigrants made up 5.4 percent of the U.S. work force, primarily in lower-paying farming, construction or janitorial work.
Roughly three out of four of their children - or 4 million - were born in the U.S. In 2003, 2.7 million children of illegal immigrants were born in this country.
Overall, illegal immigrants' children account for one of every 15 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Illegal immigrants also have become more geographically dispersed, increasingly passing up typical destinations like California in favor of jobs in newly-emerging Hispanic areas in southeastern states like Georgia and North Carolina.
In 2008, California had the most illegal immigrants at 2.7 million, double its 1990 number, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey. Still, California's 22 percent share of the nation's illegal immigrant population was a marked drop-off from its 42 percent share in 1990.
The latest demographic snapshot comes as President Barack Obama is preparing to address the politically sensitive issue of immigration reform later this year, including a proposal to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
Though their numbers have soared over the past two decades, the total number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has declined or remained flat in the last couple of years. Demographers attribute that to slower rates of migration into the U.S. caused in part by the recession, as well as to deportations and stepped-up immigration enforcement during the Bush administration.
Among the findings:
- One-third of the children of illegal immigrants live in poverty, nearly double the rate for children of U.S.-born parents.
- Illegal immigrants' share of low-wage jobs has grown in recent years, from 10 percent of construction jobs in 2003 to 17 percent in 2008. They also make up 25 percent of workers in farming and 19 percent in building maintenance.
- The 2007 median household income of illegal immigrants was $36,000, compared with $50,000 for U.S.-born residents.
- About 47 percent of illegal immigrant households have children, compared with 21 percent for U.S.-born residents and 35 percent for legal immigrants.
- About 59 percent of illegal immigrants, or 7 million, came from Mexico. Other regions included Asia (11 percent), Central America (11 percent), South America (7 percent), the Caribbean (4 percent) and the Middle East (2 percent).
For more info:
By Associated Press Writer Hope Yen
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 54 Comments
- After reading all of the dissenter's comments I only have this to respond,a movie quote:
"What did you expect?....,welcome to our town?..., these are people of the land...,the common clay...,ya know....,MORONS! - Reply to this comment
- CLoverNYC1
Sending them back to Mexico makes all the sense in the world. The babies have as much right to Mexican citizenship as they do American. They can just go back to Mexico with their parents until they are grown.
One of my siblings was born in a foreign country. That did not mean my parents could stay there forever, or that the family had to break up. The media acts like the kids cannot go back to Mexico, but they can, just like all of my family returned to the United States. - Reply to this comment
- Both parties are equal culprits in the selling and destruction of the core values this country was founded on .. just for selfish, but different reasons.
Posted by afmcalax
You are exactly right in your statement that both parties have let this happen. The Republicans and the Democrats have taken more and more power that is supposed to belong to the states.
The Constitutional duty that is clearly the responsibility of the federal government that they will not fulfill is defending our borders. - Reply to this comment
- ok, we need to do three things LOL
- Reply to this comment
- Is this supposed to be some sort of a revelation?
The United States is one of the few nations in the world that still has citizenship conferred by birth. We need to do two things:
(1) Send them all back to Mexico along with their babies and children.
(2) Stop those welfare payments
(3) Change the citizenship laws so that only those whose grandmothers were born in the US can become citizens, and only after a long and arduous process that involves payment of monies, a post-graduate degree from an accredited institution, and a profession that would benefit American society. - Reply to this comment
- I don't believe that the children should automatically become US Citizens!! Does anyone in government understand the term "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT!!!" If the parents are here illegally then how can it be LAWFUL for the children to be here. Aren't we the some of the same people that are b*&%$ing about parents taking responsibility for their children?? Does that only apply to lawful citizens of this country??
- Reply to this comment
- Posted by TheDude78 at 6:49 PM : Apr 14, 2009
Hang that up in Mexico will ya? It ain't gonna fly here!! - Reply to this comment
- Again Repubs have mush for brains. Exactly who was in charge of Congress 6 of the last 8 years? Who was in charge of the presidency 8 out of the last 8 years. Except for blowing smoke and using it as a wedge issue what exactly did the Repubs do to stop this illegal immigration? The voted to build a fence - whoopee !!!
The Repubs want illegals for their low cost, no complaining labor as much as the Demos want them for their potential votes. Those automatic citizens at birth eventually become voters ... a lot are coming of age now. The Demos want them. Both parties are equal culprits in the selling and destruction of the core values this country was founded on .. just for selfish, but different reasons. - Reply to this comment
- We should just invade Mexico.
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- Wonderful, just friggin wonderful. thanks to reagan and every president since we are over run with illegials and now the union wants to take them in, obama and others want a path to citizenship. i as an american who has lived here for my lifetime just would LOVE A FRIGGIN JOB!
- Reply to this comment
- http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/mecha/archive/plan.html:
In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal "gringo" invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlán from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny.
We are free and sovereign to determine those tasks which are justly called for by our house, our land, the sweat of our brows, and by our hearts. Aztlán belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent
Brotherhood unites us, and love for our brothers makes us a people whose time has come and who struggles against the foreigner "gabacho" who exploits our riches and destroys our culture. With our heart in our hands and our hands in the soil, we declare the independence of our mestizo nation. We are a bronze people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlán.
For La Raza to do. Fuera de La Raza nada.
Program
El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán sets the theme that the Chicanos (La Raza de Bronze) must use their nationalism as the key or common denominator for mass mobilization and organization. Once we are committed to the idea and philosophy of El Plan de Aztlán, we can only conclude that social, economic, cultural, and political independence is the only road to total liberation from oppression, exploitation, and racism. Our struggle then must be for the control of our barrios, campos, pueblos, lands, our economy, our culture, and our political life. El Plan commits all levels of Chicano society - the barrio, the campo, the ranchero, the writer, the teacher, the worker, the professional - to La Causa.
Nationalism
Nationalism as the key to organization transcends all religious, political, class, and economic factions or boundaries. Nationalism is the common denominator that all members of La Raza can agree upon.
Organizational Goals
1. UNITY in the thinking of our people concerning the barrios, the pueblo, the campo, the land, the poor, the middle class, the professional-all committed to the liberation of La Raza.
2. ECONOMY: economic control of our lives and our communities can only come about by driving the exploiter out of our communities, our pueblos, and our lands and by controlling and developing our own talents, sweat, and resources. Cultural background and values which ignore materialism and embrace humanism will contribute to the act of cooperative buying and the distribution of resources and production to sustain an economic base for healthy growth and development Lands rightfully ours will be fought for and defended. Land and realty ownership will be acquired by the community for the people's welfare. Economic ties of responsibility must be secured by nationalism and the Chicano defense units.
3. EDUCATION must be relative to our people, i.e., history, culture, bilingual education, contributions, etc. Community control of our schools, our teachers, our administrators, our counselors, and our programs.
4. INSTITUTIONS shall serve our people by providing the service necessary for a full life and their welfare on the basis of restitution, not handouts or beggar's crumbs. Restitution for past economic slavery, political exploitation, ethnic and cultural psychological destruction and denial of civil and human rights. Institutions in our community which do not serve the people have no place in the community. The institutions belong to the people.
5. SELF-DEFENSE of the community must rely on the combined strength of the people. The front line defense will come from the barrios, the campos, the pueblos, and the ranchitos. Their involvement as protectors of their people will be given respect and dignity. They in turn offer their responsibility and their lives for their people. Those who place themselves in the front ranks for their people do so out of love and carnalismo. Those institutions which are fattened by our brothers to provide employment and political pork barrels for the gringo will do so only as acts of liberation and for La Causa. For the very young there will no longer be acts of juvenile delinquency, but revolutionary acts.
6. CULTURAL .....
7. POLITICAL LIBERATION can only come through indepen-dent action on our part, since the two-party system is the same animal with two heads that feed from the same trough. Where we are a majority, we will control; where we are a minority, we will represent a pressure group; nationally, we will represent one party: La Familia de La Raza!
El Plan de Aztlán is the plan of liberation! - Reply to this comment
- no citenzhip for the parents they can get deported to their place of origin along with the kid when the kid turns 18 then they can come to the us if they desire
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- "most people that imigrate illegaly come to work, if they had no work, they would go back to their country because their are hard work people, they arent here to steal or kill . they just want to have a better life, and sometime this is the only shot//"
Posted by ninja72 at 2:24 PM : Apr 14, 2009
If that's the case, ninja72, there is no reason why they can't come into our country LEGALLY......just like everyone else. - Reply to this comment
- If mexicans and other immigrants didn't have to compete with 'globalization' and British-style 'free trade' then there wouldn't be an immigration problem
Junkyard dogs Sean Hannity and Druggie Limbaugh are complete idiots and they blab on and on and on about ilegal immigration but defend Wall Street to exploit workers in other countries, under so-called 'American exceptionalism'.
Then these same idiots preach that Wall Street has a God-given right to ship our jobs overseas, get a gigantic bonus for doing so, bust up unions to drive down wages, don't pay taxes for looting our country and hiding that loot in offshore bank accounts in the Caymen Islands.
You really got to love Wall Street Republicans...
Love to complain but never take responsibility. - Reply to this comment
- This is one thing all Americans should be able to agree to .. a child born in America should automatically be given the citizenship of his parents. If they are not legal American citizens then their children should not be either. It is archaic to give children of illegals American citizenship.
If the parents become citizens before the child turns 18; then the child should be given citizenship. If older than 18 the child should be forced to apply. If the children were not granted automatic citizenship at birth maybe the illegals would stop having them here. - Reply to this comment
- What will it take for our Country to wake up and understand what the liberal interests are doing to minimize the hard work of tax paying, hard working, home losing Americans who do what they are asked and yet we shoulder the burden of people who come to this Country and contribute little or nothing at all. Reforming healthcare, turning around our economy in the U.S. and all the economic incentives will do nothing if we don't reform the immigration policies first. WAKE UP AMERICA!
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- Americans and the children of legal residents are receiving 3 class education, since our schools have had accommodate millions of children of illegal foreign nationals mandated by Federal law. My son is crammed into a school, where the English language is a dead as archaic Latin.
It's time we place all our social services for our own legal population? It seems like every time we read the newspapers, our politicians are catering to illegal immigrants? We have amassed poverty in our own nation, yet we allow millions to come to America annually, which taxpayers underwrite for employers in medical services, education and other advantages. Our immigration laws have been tainted for the sake of monetary gain, which includes dropping E-verify, so illegal aliens can still appropriate jobs in this dire economy.
This editorial says it all, that children of illegal immigrants live in abject poverty, because Americans have allowed the special interest lobby to dictate to our legislators. Within immigration laws their is a clause, that anybody sponsored must be financially secure, or the sponsor must be able to financially support them. In the majority of cases this never happens, which causes a liability on US taxpayers. Then we have the distorted law of a child borne here, becomes an instant citizen? Nowhere else in the world will this happen, owing to fact the mother is--by law--an illegal alien. The original law was written for the benefit of the emancipation of slaves after the Civil War. More than any "Rule of Law" immigration laws have been corrupted, dumped or just plain ignored. So goes, E-Verify, Real ID, Federal program 247(g). All have been lobotomized for corporate welfare, US. Chamber of Commerce, ACLU and the radical ethnocentric organizations. Taxpayers have yet to realize hundreds of billions of their dollars are diverted to anti-sovereignty, open border cliques. Find facts at NUMBERSUSA, JUDICIALWATCH, CAPSWEB. - Reply to this comment
- The illegal immigrants are here breeding like flies on our dime, do not do any thing for our country. They are all unskilled, filthy, lots of drug users & dealers, that do not have any intentions of becoming legal.
Posted by diamruby at 2:16 PM : Apr 14, 2009
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You probably forgot the news of the family in Utah that had 19 children, all white Americans. Does your diatribe apply to them as well? - Reply to this comment
- most people that imigrate illegaly come to work, if they had no work, they would go back to their country because their are hard work people, they arent here to steal or kill . they just want to have a better life, and sometime this is the only shot//
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- The problem is that we give citizenship to children of illegal aliens in the first place. If only children born of legal aliens or American citizens were granted automatic citizenship then this problem would be solved. We need to change our laws to be inline with most nations in the world.
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