U.S. to Offer Care to Infants of Illegal Immigrants
In a reversal, the Bush administration said Tuesday that babies born in the United States to illegal immigrants with low incomes could automatically qualify for one year of Medicaid coverage, just as babies born to United States citizens did.
Federal officials dropped their insistence that illegal immigrants document the citizenship of the newborns. State officials, hospitals and pediatricians had said the requirement made no sense because, under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, people born in this country are United States citizens. ROBERT PEAR in The New York Times.