WASHINGTON — The number of U.S. citizens born to illegal immigrants has increased sharply, from 2.7 million in 2003 to 4 million in 2008, according to a study released Tuesday.
The report by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center also found that more than a third of such children were in poverty in 2007, compared with about 18 percent of those born to either legal immigrants or U.S.-born parents. Similarly, one in four U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants went without health insurance in 2008, compared with 14 percent of those born to legal immigrants and 8 percent born to U.S.-born parents.
The findings suggest that the impact of the unprecedented spike in illegal immigration over the past three decades will continue to be felt for years to come, even as the illegal-immigrant population appears to have leveled off since 2006 at about 10.4 million adults and 1.5 million children. Children born on U.S. soil are automatically granted U.S. citizenship.
The study, which analyzed Census Bureau statistics, found that U.S.-born children now account for 73 percent of all children of illegal immigrants. And children of illegal immigrants — including those born overseas — now account for 6.8 percent of elementary and secondary school students nationwide and more than one in 10 students in Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas.
The Census Bureau does not ask people their immigration status. So the authors used a technique that essentially estimates the number of legal immigrants using other government records such as visas issued, then subtracts that population from the total number of foreign born counted by the census to come up with the number of illegal immigrants.
The spike in births to illegal immigrants is due largely to their relative youth compared with the general population, while many of the challenges faced by their U.S.-born children can be explained by the parents’ usual far lower rates of education and lack of access to jobs where legal status is stringently checked. Among illegal immigrants ages 25 to 65, the study found, nearly a third have less than a ninth-grade education, compared with 13 percent of legal immigrants and 2 percent of U.S.-born residents.
The findings also reinforced the unprecedented geographic dispersal of illegal immigrants since 1990 across southeastern states with little prior history of immigration. While longtime magnets such as Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas retained their appeal — and California continues to house the largest number of unauthorized immigrants — growth there has slowed.
By contrast, Virginia’s illegal-immigrant population rose 9 percent from 2005 to 2008, to 300,000. The state ranks 10th in the size of its illegal-immigrant population.
