A study from Pew Research detailed that 320,000 U.S. births in 2023, or about 9% of all babies born that year, came from unauthorized immigrants or mothers with temporary legal status. The study comes as the Supreme Court weighs the constitutionality of President Trump’s order on birthright citizenship.
Of the 320,000 babies born, about 260,000 would not have qualified for birthright citizenship had Trump’s order been in effect. Of those, 245,000 babies were born to mothers who were illegal immigrants or not lawful permanent residents, and about 15,000 babies were born to mothers with legal temporary status and fathers who were not citizens or lawful permanent residents, Pew Research explained.
“The number of unauthorized immigrants more than tripled from 1990 to 2007,” the report says. “The number of births also more than tripled, from 120,000 in 1990 to a peak of about 380,000 in 2006.” In 1990, births to unauthorized immigrant mothers made about 3% of the U.S. births that year. In 2006, the births made up about 9% of the total. Between 2006 and 2019, the number of births to unauthorized immigrant mothers dropped by more than 40%.
“In 2023, an estimated 4.6 million children had been born in the U.S. and were living with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent,” Pew Research adds. “Another 1.4 million adults born in the U.S. lived with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent, bringing the total to more than 6 million.”
The statistics were revealed in a Fox News report discussing the surge in birth tourism.
A report from the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that 225,000 to 250,000 births to illegal immigrants were had in 2023, or nearly 7% of U.S. births.
