Illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America pour into Texas to give birth

September 28, 2006

Illegal immigrants from both Mexico and Central American countries are crossing the border into Texas to give birth on U.S. soil so, they believe, their children will automatically be American citizens.

The traffic is straining hospitals, and is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Health officials as well as doctors say they are overwhelmed by these births, as well as those of the illegal immigrant mothers who are already in Texas.

Administrators at Ben Taub General Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital said that in 2005, 70 to 80 percent of the 10,587 births at the hospitals were to illegal immigrants.

Immigrants "want a U.S.-born baby" and know that emergency room staffers don't collect any money up front, said Dr. Mario Rodriguez, an obstetrician in Starr County.

"The word is out: Come to Starr County and get delivered for free. Why pay $1,000 in Mexico when you can get it for free?" Rodriguez said.

Starr County is an already poor South Texas county that has the region's only taxpayer-supported hospital district. Starr County hospital administrator Thalia Muñoz said. "It's gotten worse, and it's because the economy in Mexico is not good and because we provide all these benefits."

Unfortunately, doctors say, Starr County isn't alone.

“All the municipalities between here and California" face the same situation said Tony Falcon, a Rio Grande City physician who was appointed to the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission in April. ''What you see here is what is happening in Brownsville, McAllen, El Paso and San Diego."

Many regard the U.S.-born infants as "anchor babies" because they give their illegal immigrant parents and relatives a way to petition for citizenship. They estimate that 360,000 of these babies are born in the U.S. every year and warn that the numbers are rising.

Some lawmakers want to begin denying citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants.

Birthright citizenship, as it is known, has been in force since the approval of the Constitution's 14th Amendment in 1868. But several bills under consideration in Congress would abolish the longstanding federal policy. Sponsors include U.S. Reps. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, and Nathan Deal, R-Ga.

Illegal immigrants say they are being attacked unfairly and think that all children born in the U.S. should have equal rights.

Starr County Memorial Hospital had $3.6 million in uncollected medical bills in 2005, up from $1.5 million in 2002. The total when fiscal 2006 ends on Sept. 30 is expected to hit $3.9 million, chief financial officer Rafael Olivarez said. Unpaid bills for the past five years will reach nearly $13 million, he said.

Already, the U.S. government is pitching in, setting aside $1 billion in Medicaid funds to pay for emergency care received by undocumented migrants over the next four years.

But Olivarez said getting the reimbursements isn't easy. Federal officials ''told us at a meeting they would pay us about 20 cents on the dollar," he said. "But it's better than nothing."

No one knows for sure how many illegal immigrants there are or what they cost the health care system. Most hospitals don't ask whether patients have papers.

Harris County Hospital District officials say their policy is not to question patients directly about their citizenship.

Eighty-three percent of the illegal immigrants receiving in-patient care at the district's hospitals and clinics last year were from Mexico, officials said. Six percent were from El Salvador or Guatemala. And the remaining 11 percent were from such countries as Britain, Canada, Haiti, India, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Vietnam