In defending the Trump administration’s support for legislation that cuts legal immigration, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller dismissed the famous Statue of Liberty poem by Emma Lazarus since it was added after the statue was completed.
The RAISE Act (for Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy), would dramatically cut legal immigration to the United States — including cutting the number of refugees allowed in the country by half.
To refresh your memory, here are the words of Emma Lazarus’ poem, inscribed in bronze at the base of the Statue of Liberty:
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!”