Immigrant births hit record 
Central Valley leads the nation, new study shows.

By Michael Doyle / www.FresnoBee.com

WASHINGTON — Foreign-born mothers are delivering a record number of children in the United States, with Central Valley families far ahead of the national average, a new report shows.

Politically charged and tactically timed, the new analysis shows 46% of children born in California in 2002 had foreign-born mothers. This was twice the national average, and considerably higher than it used to be.

Only 15% of Californians born in 1970, for instance, had immigrant moms. The increase in immigrant families since then touches schools, public health, housing and, not least, politics.

"America is headed into uncharted territory," Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, said Thursday. "We simply don't know how these children will assimilate — but it is clear that the stakes for America are enormous."

The Center for Immigration Studies takes a generally hard line on immigration issues, and is injecting the new study into the Capitol Hill debate at a point when congressional intentions are still fluid.

Some of the findings amount to estimates, such as a calculation that illegal immigrant mothers give birth to 383,000 children annually in the United States.

Other findings are tied directly to birth records, assigning numbers to what others have been observing.

"Especially, we're having trouble with teenage immigrant mothers," said Stephen Rico, president of the Madera Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "These are legal ones and illegal ones, both."

Rico, whose own grandmother emigrated from Mexico, further noted that illegal immigrant mothers "often will take the initiative to have their children here, so they can become a U.S. citizen." Often, Rico added, the mothers are "more motivated" than the fathers.

Birth records show that immigrant mothers are particularly prevalent in the Central Valley and Southern California, a long-running trend that has taken off in certain areas.

In Sacramento County, for instance, one out of every three babies born in 2002 was born to an immigrant mother. In 1990, only 18% of the county's babies were born to immigrant mothers.

Stanislaus County, likewise, has become home to more immigrant mothers, albeit less dramatically.

Immigrant moms accounted for 36.6% of all births in Stanislaus County in 2002, compared with 27.4% in 1990.

Elsewhere, the birth records suggest a leveling off.

While many babies still are born to immigrant mothers in Fresno and Merced counties — amounting to 37.2% and 42.2% of all births respectively in 2002 — both counties have seen a slight decline since 1990.

Still, Merced, Fresno, Yolo, Tulare and San Joaquin counties all continue to rank among the nation's top 50 counties in percentage of births to foreign-born mothers.

"One of the things it means is that we have a large number of kids in the category we call English learners," said Lee Andersen, superintendent of the Merced County Office of Education. "That means from preschool onward, we are emphasizing teaching English."

Camarota calculated that one of every 10 births in the United States is to an illegal immigrant. It's more in some states, though, and Camarota estimated that 116,862 California babies were born to illegal immigrant mothers in 2002.

Camarota said a proposed temporary worker program would only aggravate this, a contention not all share.

"I'm not surprised at the statistics," said Marc Grossman, Sacramento-based spokesman for the United Farm Workers. "What's happening is that many workers who used to be able to cross the border, who used to be true migrants, now either don't go home or they bring their families here."

Grossman said the birth records thus "argue for a measure like AgJobs," which would grant temporary legal status and potentially the prospect of U.S. citizenship to illegal immigrant farmworkers.

Supporters summoned 53 Senate votes on what amounted to a dry run in April, but skeptics like Camarota say this proposal amounts to amnesty and oppose it.

Twenty-three percent of all births in the United States in 2002 were to immigrant mothers; in 1970, only 6% were.

Camarota said the country has never experienced such a rate, even at the peak of a big immigration wave around 1910.

Immigrant mothers tend to be less well-educated than native-born mothers, with 39% lacking a high school degree.