It's a distinction without a difference in this case because both are positive attributes to have in immigrants (independently or jointly).
I suppose we should differentiaye between illegal and legal immigrants. I'd venture to guess that, on average self selection for intelligence manifests in the form of legal immigration, while the so called "tenaceous" immigrants tend to ignore legal borders.
Before anyone accuses me of white supremacy or privilege or such nonsense, my parents were first generation legal immigrants.
How is that inconsistent with White supremacy or privilege? Because of geographic distribution of races, immigration demand, and per-country allocation of visa quotas, white people often have an advantage in legal immigration and the legal immigration is structured around preference classes which are themselves institutionalized privilege and also correlate with various more general privileges of birth, inheritance, and circumstance.
Ironically enough, his attempt at focusing on the objective led to you solely responding with accusations about how 'being white etc etc etc'.
Take arguments at face value; they can only be fully dispelled after reasoned, objective consideration.
Also: I will say that your point is a really interesting one re: racial privilege, but it's not relevant to the validity of his immigration stance.