That Emma Lazarus, she was all mixed up. We don’t want no stinkin’ huddled masses, we want onntrapranoors! If you can’t afford a two-bedroom condo in Manhattan then gtfo.

Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has proposed a new interpretation of the famous welcome that appears on a placard at the Statue of Liberty.

The famous lines, taken from The New Colossus by the 19th-century New York poet Emma Lazarus, read: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Cuccinelli offered a change: “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”

Then…why are they tired and poor? If they can already “stand on their own two feet,” by which of course he means they “have plenty of money,” then they’re not your tired and poor, are they, they’re your bouncy and rich. I guess the tired and poor have to just stay and rot where they are; we’ve stopped caring.

The catch is that poverty is a goal in this society. Team Cuccinelli doesn’t actually want people in general to have plenty of money, because if they do, they won’t do all the shit jobs that Team Cuccinelli wants them to do. That’s why Trump has lots of tired and poor working for him, including tired and poor with fake papers that other Trump employees told them to get.

Poor people aren’t failing or refusing to stand on their own two feet; they’re failing to make enough money to get by in a very expensive capitalist society. More reasonable capitalist societies make efforts to deal with that problem by subsidizing basic needs – public schools, public housing, health insurance, and the like. They don’t see it as poor people tottering around unable to stand, they see it as a matter of necessity for people on low wages. The Cuccinellis of the world want to go right on paying the low wages while not doing anything to make life possible on that low wage.

On NPR’s Morning Edition, Cuccinelli defended the Trump administration decision to make it harder for migrants to be awarded permanent residence, or a “green card”, if they have ever accepted benefit programs such as food stamps, housing assistance or Medicaid.

Starting in October, decisions on green card applicants will be based on a wealth test, meant to establish if they have the means to support themselves. Poor migrants will be denied if they are deemed likely to use government programs.

Hey they can always pack 20 people into a one-bedroom apartment, right? And work three jobs? That’s standing on your own two feet.