In the recent talk of immigration reform on the presidential campaign trail, the term "anchor baby" has made a comeback, mostly from Republican hopefuls like Florida Governor Jeb Bush and business mogul Donald Trump.

Trump’s immigration policy proposes to end the 14th amendment, which grants birthright citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil, be they to parents of documented or undocumented persons. Ted Cruz and others in the crowded Republican race jumped on the bandwagon shortly after.

Both Trump and Bush — the unapologetic “anchor baby” haters — say that undocumented immigrants come here to give birth so that they can matriculate citizenship. Of course, it’s much more complicated than that, but the hot-button issue has polarized electoral politics in recent months. Meanwhile, before Latino critics can condemn the argument, they have to address the language that couches it.

Ian Haney Lopez, who authored a book on racialized political rhetoric in the U.S., said that the term “anchor baby” is a dog whistle — a coded term that means one thing on the surface, but implies something more sinister for its targeted demographic. In essence, Haney Lopez argues, the term appeals to fears of shifting racial demographics.

"Children are widely seen as innocent and pure…yet there is an unspoken racial element there, for children of color are all too often pictured as criminals or welfare cheats in training," Haney Lopez told NBC News. He added that the term highlights “an ignoble tradition that finds voice in the phrase 'anchor babies,' which tarnishes even the tiniest infant with the stain of being one of 'them,' the dark and dangerous who invade our society.”

Latino lawmakers on capital hill have also spoken out against the terms supposed normalization.

Of course, neither the argument nor the term are new. Every few years over the past decade the phrase creeps into discussions of immigration reform and border politics. It ebbs from the mouths of lawmakers on capital hill as freely as it does from Donald Trump's campaign champions. As both Bush and Trump have said when asked if they thought the term was bombastic: Everyone is using it!

In 2010, Giselle Florian described the “anchor baby” argument against 14th amendment as a “cynical strategy [that] explicitly targets the Latino community to get rid of these new voters rather than do the hard work of cultivating them.”

More specifically, Florian talked about how the conservative argument targets immigrant mothers: