'Dropped babies' not insignificant number

A recent letter to the Daily Herald criticized Republican efforts to open a national dialogue on changing the 14th Amendment, which defines citizenship in the U.S., specifically to determine if it is appropriate to continue providing citizenship to children born in the U.S. regardless of the legal status of the parents.

The letter's author referred to the children of illegal aliens as "dropped babies" and stated that the scope of this problem was 8,000 births out of the approximately 4 million live births in the U.S. (as of 2008). The author then reached the conclusion that "dropped babies" was only a "drop in the bucket" compared to all live births, and therefore not an issue at all.

After a 2 minute Google search, I discovered that the author grossly understated the problem. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in 2008, the actual number of live births where the parents do not have legal status was over 300,000. In 2008, The McAllen Medical Center in Texas reported over 2,400 births to illegal aliens at their center alone.

In addition, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated (in 2008) that over 4 million children of illegal aliens attended public school throughout the U.S., and that number has grown to over 5 million today.

I am not taking a position for or against changing the 14th Amendment. What I am for is having an intelligent, honest and adult conversation about the issues surrounding illegal immigration and what we must do as a nation to fix the problem.

Charles Phillips

Glen Ellyn