As the faith community's nationwide push for comprehensive immigration reform gains steam, religious leaders are working to set a civil tone in the debate. Illustrating the need for this, Campus Progress reported that the anti-immigrant group Numbers USA held a strategy conference call with leaders of Tea Party organizations to plot ways to thwart the March 21st March For America, which included some rather troubling rhetoric:

CALLER 1: I would like to speak out on something. I feel the new welfare queen in America today is women coming from Mexico with a bunch of babies. So I feel they're all coming over here and having all these babies, they are the new welfare queen in America.... New people in America today with a lot of babies, 'cause they coming from Mexico having a bunch of babies. And our tax dollars is taking care of them babies, 'cause the mothers are illegal. So to me, we need to speak out about letting them know they're the new welfare queens in America.

CALLER 2: That was well said brother!

MACDONALD [moderator, from Numbers USA]: We will make a note of that. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

CALLER 3: One piece of information would be, they aren't babies, they're dependents. Don't use babies. It's emotional to them. They have dependents. We have babies. [Emphasis added.]

This wasn't just a couple of cranks blowing off steam. This was a strategy session by national anti-immigration organizers discussing how to effectively deceive the public and dehumanize immigrants. Spreading inflammatory misinformation and calling an immigrant's children less fully human than a citizen's is beyond distasteful - it is immoral. Hopefully immigration reform opponents don't bring it into the public square.