With immigration, the real issue is not a poor choice of words, but the idea that ‘better’ immigrants come from ‘better’ countries

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If President Trump made the statement attributed to him last week (asking why America would “want all these people from [expletive deleted] countries”) — which he denies saying — it would be deplorable. It would also inexcusably depreciate how hard Haitians, many of whom I know personally from having the privilege of working in Haiti for over two decades, are working to make Haiti today different.

However, the real issue is not a reportedly poor choice of words, but the idea that “better” immigrants who assimilate quickly and contribute to U.S. society come from “better” countries. This is, of course, prejudiced and wrong.

Unfortunately, many people will apply the same prejudice in reverse, arguing that people from poor countries are automatically more deserving of emigration. (Again, I am referring here to simple immigration, not refugees or asylum policies.) Worse, many people probably think, wrongly, that a principle such as this actually drives U.S. immigration policy.

The fact that medical professionals find ways to leave impoverished countries in large numbers should clear up any misconception that U.S. immigration is currently about the tired masses. In fact, massive entries and trickles into the United States have almost always been about privilege or cheap labor.

I do have one positive hope for Mr. Trump’s alleged comment: Maybe we will think a bit more than usual about how our immigration policy, which has always favored the exit of educated, skilled people from poorer, less developed countries (regardless of whether there is a Democrat or Republican in the White House), impacts countries like Haiti.

This uproar provides an opportunity to remind ourselves how few people are actually allowed into the United States legally. This makes immigration an insignificant factor in the overall improvement of human lives around the world. I don’t deny the good fortune of the lucky few (and it is always a few regardless of who is in power) who win the lottery. I also believe that the United States has done nothing but benefit from the waves of immigrants to our shores.

However, again, I remind us to be honest with ourselves as a nation. The suggestion that immigration is at its core a humane act is at best questionable. Certainly, it ignores the most likely explanation for its allowance: bringing in workers. The United States did not admit Irish in droves because of their famished bodies, but to fight in a civil war and do needed work — cheap lives, literally cannon fodder.

I do believe the right to emigrate to work is a human right. I would like to see open borders in our hemisphere. I would love to live in One America. And, every time I spend a day in Miami, I happily feel I already do.

However, my concern for immigration pales in comparison with how much I would like to see effective efforts to improve the lives of people in the countries which have been mired in poverty as a result of indigenous and exogenous failures and ills. What needs to change more than Trump’s reported words is the conditions they inappropriately described.

Patrick Moynihan is the president of The Haitian Project, which began in the Diocese of Providence 30 years ago and provides through its Louverture Cleary School — a free, Catholic, co-educational secondary boarding school in Haiti — an education for academically talented and motivated students from Haitian families who cannot afford the cost of their children’s education.