A new Pew Research Center analysis of 2023 birth data reveals that approximately 320,000 of the 3.6 million babies born in the United States that year had at least one parent who was in the country illegally — representing nearly 9% of all U.S. births, the highest figure recorded since 2010.
Of those births, roughly 260,000 would not qualify for automatic citizenship under President Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, which is currently before the Supreme Court. Approximately 245,000 were born to mothers who were unauthorized immigrants with fathers who were neither citizens nor lawful permanent residents. Another 15,000 were born to mothers with temporary legal status whose fathers lacked permanent legal standing.
The data tracks closely with the growth of the illegal immigrant population itself. Births to unauthorized immigrant mothers tripled between 1990 and 2006 — rising from 120,000 to a peak of 380,000 — before declining and then rebounding under the Biden administration’s open-border policies. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling on the birthright citizenship executive order by late June or early July.
Heritage Foundation analyst Brandy Perez Carbaugh put the stakes plainly: under the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment, these children automatically gain citizenship and with it access to a cascade of taxpayer-funded benefits — food stamps, welfare, specialized schooling, and eventually college aid.
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 to guarantee citizenship to formerly enslaved Americans. Applying it as a universal birthright for any child born on U.S. soil — regardless of the legal status of the parents — was never its intent, and the Supreme Court has a historic opportunity to correct that misreading.
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