Such a nice place...

…to have a baby.

Demographers are excited that the birth rate in Mexico is dropping. In 1970, Mexican women had 6.8 children each. Now that number is 2.4, still higher than the US average of 2.1, but a vast improvement.

UNLESS...that Mexican woman is living here in the United States. Now, the figure changes to 3.2. That’s right. Mexican women in Mexico have 2.4 children each. Mexican women living here have 3.2 children each.

The reason? According to an AP article in our paper today, “’They're more optimistic about their future here,’ said Jeff Passel, a Pew Center demographer.”

Or maybe you like this explanation:
“Some complain that many illegal immigrants come here purposely to have children.
‘The child is an automatic American citizen, thus entitled to all benefits of American citizens. This gives a certain financial incentive for people coming from other countries illegally to have children here,’ said John Vinson, president of the Virginia-based American Immigration Control Foundation.”

Or maybe it’s the EMTALA Law passed by Congress many years ago, making it illegal to turn anyone away from an Emergency Room, even if they can’t pay. In fact, the “AL” part of EMTALA stands for “Active Labor.”

And who is coming across the border illegally? Young people. People of child-bearing years. 84% of illegal alien adults are between the ages of 18 and 44. Among native-born Americans that number is only 60%. (Pew study, 2005)

And illegals are the parents of 4.7 million children. Some are anchor babies and some came here as children.

The moral of the story is that if you don’t like seeing all these kids running through the stores unsupervised, move to Mexico. They have fewer children. Go figure.