Study: 8 Percent of U.S. Births to Illegal Immigrants

Eight percent of all babies born in the U.S. in 2008 belonged to illegal immigrant parents, according to a groundbreaking analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center. Under the 14th amendment to the Constitution, each child obtained U.S. citizenship at birth while one or both of the parents remained undocumented.

Pew estimates 340,000 of the 4.3 million newborns in U.S. hospitals in 2008 belonged to illegal immigrant parents. In total, 4 million U.S.-born, citizen children of illegal immigrants currently live in the country, according to the study.