One in 12 babies born in the U.S. in 2008 were children of illegal immigrants, concludes a new study, according to a WSJ.com report.
While undocumented immigrants make up slightly more than 4% of the U.S. adult population, their offspring represented twice that share, or 8%, of all births on U.S. soil in 2008, according to a Pew Hispanic Center's report.
"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," says Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at Pew, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The report additionally concluded that 79% of the 5.1 million children of illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. in 2009 were born in the country and are therefore citizens by operation of law.
At present, it is estimated that some 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. -- with Latinos accounting for 75% of undocumented U.S. immigrants and about 85% of the births among that group.
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