According to a new study released on Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center, roughly one in twelve babies born in the United States in 2008 had at least one parent who was an illegal immigrant. (That is around 8 percent, or roughly 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the U.S. in 2008.) About 85 percent of those parents are Hispanic. This study comes at a time when several Republican senators are asking for a review of the 14th Amendment, which grants automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil.
Julia Preston, immigration reporter for The New York Times, explains the numbers in the Pew study and their possible political implications.
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