Jan. 25 (UPI) — Undocumented migrant mothers in the United States gave birth to up to 250,000 children in 2023, the Center for Immigration Studies estimated Friday.
The center estimates between 225,000 and 250,000 births by mothers who are undocumented migrants in the United States, but the center has a relatively low confidence level in that estimate.
“Up to a quarter million births to illegal immigrants is hardly trivial,” center officials said Friday in an online announcement. “It appears to be more than the number of births to legal non-citizens, and it is greater than the total number of births in all but two states taken individually.”
The center anticipates an even larger number of births for 2024.
Although the initial number of births for undocumented mothers is an estimate, center officials don’t anticipate a large upward adjustment as more information becomes available.
“We have not formally updated our estimate since publishing a 2018 report on the subject,” center officials said.
“It will take some time to investigate changes in the characteristics of the illegal population due to the [President Joe] Biden border surge, along with the extent to which the Census Bureau surveys truly reflect those changes,” center officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consistently has recorded the number of births in the United States during the current decade, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
Undocumented mothers of migrant newborns also have an incentive to register the respective births to get birth certificates and citizenship for their babies.
The center undertook the study after receiving several requests after President Donald Trump on Monday issued an executive order banning birthright citizenship for the children of parents who illegally entered the United States.
The American Civil Liberties Union and several states have filed federal legal challenges to Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented migrants.
The center estimated immigrant mothers accounted for 20% of births in the United States in 2014, totaling 791,000 among legal and undocumented migrants.
Of those births, legal immigrant mothers accounted for 494,000 and illegal immigrant mothers 297,000 for 12.4% and 7.5% of all births, respectively.
The 297,000 births by undocumented migrant mothers in 2014 exceeded the total number of all births that year in all states except California and Texas.
The number of births to undocumented mothers in 2014 also exceeded the combined totals of births in 14 states and Washington, D.C.
The center estimates two-thirds of undocumented mothers in 2014 were either uninsured or using Medicaid, and U.S. taxpayers likely paid for all of the births.
The estimated cost to taxpayers in 2014 was $5.3 billion among all immigrant mothers and $.24 billion among undocumented mothers.
Although immigration “adds enormously” to the total number of annual births in the United States, the center estimates it only adds about 4% to the nation’s total birth rate due to immigrant fertility being only slightly higher than that of U.S. citizens.