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Trump Interferes With American History, Again
In an unexpected but not surprising move, the Trump administration’s top immigration official reworked the famous words on the Statue of Liberty in an interview Tuesday. Ken Cuccinelli said that America will only embrace immigrants who can “stand on their own two feet” and “not become a public charge.” He even went a step farther, saying the poem referred to “people coming from Europe.”
His comments come after the administration announced a new rule that will reject green cards for immigrants who might rely on government assistance. The Trump administration’s new “public charge” rule will make it more difficult for low-income immigrants to obtain permanent residency or temporary visas if they are deemed likely to rely on welfare benefits.
The Statue of Liberty poem was originally written by Emma Lazarus, and goes: “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!”
While many perceive these words to refer to all people who are “tired,” “poor” and “yearning to breathe free,” to Cuccinelli, the poem was about people from Europe who had class-based societies where those were considered wretched if they were in the incorrect class.
Cuccinelli also claimed that Lazarus’ words were put on the Statue of Liberty “at almost the same time” that the U.S. passed its first “public charge” rule for immigration.
By: Maytinee Kramer
