Recent Census Bureau data is certain to ignite further debate over the issue of illegal immigration. According to The Wall Street Journal, although illegal immigrants make up 4% of the US population, they are reproducing at twice that rate, accounting for 8% of all US births.
“Unauthorized immigrants are younger than the rest of the population, are more likely to be married and have higher fertility rates than the rest of the population,” said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at Pew in Washington, D.C.
The report, based on Census Bureau data and analysis of demographic characteristics of the undocumented population, also found that the lion’s share, or 79%, of the 5.1 million children of illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. in 2009 were born in the U.S. and therefore citizens.
Amid a heated national debate over illegal immigration, some Republican politicians have been calling for changes to the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” in order to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to unlawful residents.
Late last month, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham announced his support for reconsidering automatic U.S. citizenship for babies born to undocumented immigrants. He said the status quo enticed people to enter the country illegally and have children to qualify for U.S. benefits.
As the debt of the United States grows to levels that are clearly becoming unsustainable (see US Is Bankrupt And We Don’t Even Know It), the huge cost of providing free education to children of illegal immigrants needs to be reevaluated.
According to WikiAnswers, the national average cost per student in public schools is $9,666. The cost of educating 5.1 million children of illegal immigrants is costing the nation over $49 billion per year. The issue is complex since illegal immigrants also produce numerous economic benefits to the nation, which must be taken into account when evaluating the situation. Nonetheless, with many State governments on the verge of bankruptcy and legal US Citizens suffering economically, the country is no longer financially able to provide free education to an unlimited number of children born of illegal immigrants.
More On This Topic: Cost of Illegal Immigration In California Estimated At Nearly $9 Billion
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