Brookings resident Carl Kline is an ordained clergyman, part-time teacher and occasional blogger.

More than 10 years ago, I wrote a column in this space about a visit to Haiti. Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere. It is also one of the most unequal in terms of wealth distribution. The richest 1% have the same wealth as the bottom 45% of the population. (This is not so different percentage wise from the U.S., with the top 10% owning 67% of the wealth.)

The division in the distribution of wealth is obvious in Port-au-Prince. The wealthy live in mansions on the hill tops. The poor live as squatters down below. Haiti is a place of perpetual foreign intervention, political unrest, gang violence, terrible natural disasters and extreme poverty.

La Gonave is an island off the mainland. On this Haitian island there are no hilltop wealthy, everyone is poor. This island was our destination on my visit. Our purpose, as a mission of the United Methodist Church, was to help build a school. Since there was no available food on the island, we had to take everything we needed with us. This meant, as we ate our meals, island residents would often be standing in the distance watching us. How do you invite one or two to your table, while 120,000 of your neighbors are close to starvation? We were faced with that dilemma every mealtime. It’s a perpetual problem for the church, often ending up putting band aids on cancers, treating the symptoms instead of the cause.

La Gonave was a place where children might not survive. One of our student participants was asked by a mother there, if she would take her child back to the states. Apparently, sometimes, love requires sacrifice.

I’ve been remembering that La Gonave experience and re-reading the column I wrote, as Haiti is in the news these days. One wishes the news was about how to help restore a country and its people to health and prosperity, after a history of colonization, slavery, and environmental calamity.

Unfortunately, Haiti is in the news because we have immigrants from Haiti living in the U.S. And there are politicians who exploit black, brown, yellow or red bodies for their own political gain. Now these Haitian immigrants to the U.S. are being falsely accused of eating people’s pets. A sign a supporter of the former president held at a rally, showed Trump with a pet in each hand, running from hungry black bodies chasing him.

Springfield, Ohio, a destination for many Haitian immigrants, has become the center of the storm. As is almost always the case, violence follows Trump charges. Schools and government offices had to be closed because of the threats. People now live in fear, especially in the Haitian community; people who are here legally, working for a living and contributing to the community.

Now there is a second target for the Trump crusade: Aurora, Colorado. This is a city that says they are “Open to the World.” They are home to immigrants speaking 160 languages, the most diverse city in the state. Although Aurora has a large population of recent immigrants from Ethiopia who have adjusted well, they also have a problem with gang members from Venezuela. So they offer an easy target for a former President, who claims immigration is a national problem, and convinces Republicans in Congress to vote against bi-partisan legislation to help correct it.

Our country needs secure borders. We need changes and updates to our immigration system.

There is no question about these policy priorities. But they will never happen as long as we have someone using the problems as a racial dog whistle, and as a primary issue in a bid for the White House.

As a Christian pastor and U.S. citizen, I find the political use and abuse of those neighbors fleeing violence, poverty, climate calamities, and all manner of life-threatening occurrences for the safety and security of our country, utterly despicable.

In my mind’s eye, I see that room on La Gonave where I’d like to put the former president of these United States for one week. He can take what food he will need, no more. No Trump Tower. No Mar a Lago. No Trump National Gulf Club in Los Angeles. No Seven Springs in Bedford, New York. No 1094 South Ocean Drive in Palm Beach, Florida. No Chateau Des Palmiers in St. Martin. Just one room on La Gonave.

Then, if he’s not more mentally unstable than he is at present, he might be a better candidate for president; since he would have discovered how much of the world lives, and maybe he would even have overcame his fear that others, even black and poor others, could be our neighbors.