‘Anchors’ In Third Of Alien Families

Nearly one-third of families headed by illegal aliens have children who are U.S. citizens, according to a new study that also found that since the 1990s, more foreigners have entered the U.S. illegally than legally.

“The large number of U.S. citizen children born to parents with no legal status highlights one of the thorniest dilemmas in developing policies to deal with the unauthorized population,” said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, which produced the report based on the 2004 Current Population Survey, a project of the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As Congress and President Bush debate creating a guest-worker program for foreign workers, one key question is whether those workers could bring their families.

Mr. Bush has said he supports letting such workers bring their families, but others oppose that because it raises the possibility of so-called “anchor babies,” citizen children who are later allowed to petition for legal status for other family members.

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The study found that of the foreign-born population who came to the United States after 1995, more were illegal than legal as of 2004.

It also says that of the 10.3 million illegal aliens here in 2004, 5.9 million or 57 percent are Mexican, and another 2.5 million or 24 percent are from other Latin American countries.

The numbers appear to show that while the annual flow of illegal aliens has fallen slightly since 2000, the number of Mexicans crossing illegally appears to have increased. Of the Mexicans here illegally in 2004, 2.4 million, or 485,000 a year, came between 2000 and 2004. By comparison, the number was 400,000 per year who came between 1995 and 1999.

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Rachel Uranga, Los Angeles Daily News, June 15

One in every 11 people born in Mexico and still alive is a U.S. resident, and about half of these immigrants crossed the border illegally, according to a comprehensive report released Tuesday.

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“If we are going to realistically deal with this population, we have to figure out what to do with the people who are staying.”

Most undocumented immigrants are Mexicans with little education who are trying to escape the poverty in their native country. And though they make incremental strides, many never achieve economic success, with about 27 percent lingering in poverty — twice the rate for native-born Americans.

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The growing pressure on the county’s health budget comes as the public and private hospital system is increasingly in danger of collapse. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Services faces a $435 million deficit by July 2006 and more than $2.5 billion by 2008.

Furthermore, in the last year, nine private hospitals in the county have closed their doors, and the trauma center at the beleaguered Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center was closed — flooding surrounding hospitals with more patients. Services in some other counties are also under pressure.

“This is costing us billions in health care, the criminal justice system and education,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, who advocates a more stringent employment-verification system. “You can’t run and stick your head in the sand.”

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