Birthright Citizenship for Illegal Aliens Costs Taxpayers $2.4 Billion

Children born to illegal-alien parents cost U.S. taxpayers $2.4 billion each year according to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies. The report concludes that of all births in the U.S. likely paid for by taxpayers, $5.3 billion is spent each year on children born to illegal alien or immigrant parents.

Analyzing government data, CIS says that roughly 1 in every 5 child born in the United States has a foreign-born mother, accounting for 791,000 births each year. Of those, an estimated 290,000 children are born to illegal-alien parents each year. CIS estimates that 67% of illegal-alien parents are either uninsured or have access to Medicaid.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, there are 4.5 million children under the age of 18 living in the United States who were born to illegal-alien parents. Once these children become adults, they can sponsor their illegal-alien parents for green cards through the immediate family green card category.

The United States is one of only two developed nations to still grant automatic citizenship to nearly every child born in the United States, regardless of the parents’ immigration status. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has introduced H.R. 140 that would eliminate Birthright Citizenship.

For more on this report, see the Center for Immigration Studies.