Hotmamajama

Illegal Immigrant Births - At Your Expense

[CBS Evening News] MCALLEN, TX

Taxpayers Foot Bill For Roughly 300,000 Children Born Into Citizenship When Their Parents Are Illegal

"It was 5 a.m. and CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts is with a woman who is nine months pregnant. She's rushed to a south Texas hospital to undergo a C-section - a $4,700 medical procedure that won't cost her a dime. She qualifies for emergency Medicaid.

She gave birth to a healthy, 8 1/2 pound baby boy - born in America. His Mexican mother gave him an American name: Eliot.

Eliot is one of an estimated 300,000 children of illegal immigrants born in the United States every year, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. They're given instant citizenship because they are born on U.S. soil, which makes it easier for their parents to become U.S. citizens.

That's because those babies can eventually sponsor their parents - when they turn 21 years old.

As for Eliot's mother, no longer as fearful of deportation, she told CBS News her name, Fabiola, and her story.

"So your son is an American citizen. What does that mean to you?" Pitts asked.

"I am very glad that he was born. That's why I came here - so my children, my husband and I could have a better life," she said through a translator.

Back in December, when she was six months pregnant, Fabiola, her husband and their two daughters - ages 4 and 11 - crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S.

Once on the other side of the river they walked for two hours in search of a better life and free medical care for their unborn child.

"Do many women in Mexico make the choice to have their children in the United States?" Pitts asked.

"Yes," she said through a translator. "I know people who have done that. Things are much better here in the U.S. because they help children so much more."

It's a "better" life ... that American taxpayers help pay for.

Take healthcare for example -- an estimated $1.1 billion per year for undocumented men, women and children, according to the Rand Corporation."