— by Emma Lazarus —
excerpted from “The New Colossus”
Lady Liberty walks a tightrope –“a welcoming mother, a symbol of hope to the outcasts and downtrodden of the world.”
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
— the full version of “The New Colussus”–
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Liberty into a welcoming mother, a symbol of hope to the outcasts and downtrodden of the world.”[11
It is useful to remember that the immigrants to whom Emma Lazarus refers in her deeply moving poem all arrived here legally.
Yes, our immigration laws were different, back then. It was much easier for immigrants to enter… Well, as long as they weren’t oriental, anyway.
What we really need today is not another wave of illegal immigrants, but rather a radical change to our immigration policies. It should be much easier to enter our country legally, either to work temporarily or to move permanently toward citizenship.
But until we force our legislators to change our laws, and also force our labor unions to permit temporary foreign workers, we must refuse entry to those who try to sneak in, or who otherwise subvert the legal process.