Study finds increase in Georgians born to immigrants

WASHINGTON - Nearly a fifth of all babies born in Georgia are the children of immigrant mothers, according to a study by a group that supports stronger immigration control.

And of those births, 43 percent of the mothers were illegal immigrants, meaning 8 percent of the state's births are to illegal immigrants, the study, which was released Thursday, said.

The numbers show an increase over the last 35 years. In 1970, 1 percent of births in Georgia were to immigrant mothers, compared with 19 percent in 2002. That is one of the largest gains in the nation, the study found.

``The numbers are really, really striking,'' said Steve Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies and author of the study.

The Center for Immigration Studies is a Washington think tank that says it wants fewer immigrants ``but a warmer welcome for those admitted.''

Gwinnett County had one of the largest increases going from 9.3 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 2002.

The increase is no surprise to Ed Cota, who owns a network of seven maternity clinics that cater to Spanish-speaking mothers in metro Atlanta. The first clinic was in Norcross and handled 2,200 expectant mothers last year, more than three times the 600 patients served when it opened in 1998. Cota plans to open a second Gwinnett County clinic, in Lawrenceville, this year.

``The people just keep coming and coming,'' Cota said.

And the number of births by illegal immigrants makes enforcement of immigration laws harder, Camarota said. Since those children are automatically U.S. citizens, they can stay permanently and could be a factor in keeping their parents from being deported.

But Hispanic and immigrant advocates criticized the study as a partisan attack on immigrants and a veiled criticism of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees birthright citizenship.

``This is being presented in the most inflammatory possible way by an organization which is anti-immigrant, so it's important to read it with that understanding,'' said Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group.

Munoz also questioned its calculation of illegal immigrant mothers, a population that is, by definition, difficult to count.

``The Center for Immigration Studies has an interest and a history of basing these estimates on assumptions which suit their interests,'' she said. ``There is a high likelihood that there is some inflation of numbers here.''

The Center for Immigration Studies' statistics are based on birth certificates from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The calculation for illegal immigrant births was made by using a formula that took into account the total foreign born population, the fertility rates of female immigrants and estimates of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Jeffrey Passel, a demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group, said the calculations are similar to previous studies by other organizations. But he said the percentage of births to illegal immigrants seemed ``a bit high.''

Nationally, the study found that in 2002, 23 percent of all American births were to immigrant mothers, both legal and illegal. Of those children, 45 percent were born to Mexican mothers.