"Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor," Poem on the Statue of Liberty By Emma Lazarus [View all]

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(ABC News, Aug, 14, 19). "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

These iconic words from "The New Colossus" — the 1883 poem written by American Emma Lazarus are etched in bronze and mounted on the Statue of Liberty's pedestal — and have again been catapulted into a heated political debate on immigration. The Trump administration announced a "public charge" rule on Monday that could drastically limit legal immigration by denying green cards for those who qualify for food stamps, Medicaid, housing vouchers and various forms of public assistance.

Some reporters invoked "The New Colossus" when asking acting Director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services office Ken Cuccinelli about the new rule. In defending the policy on Tuesday, Cuccinelli suggested to NPR that those lines should be rewritten to say "give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge." (MORE: 5 things you should know about Trump’s latest legal immigration crackdown)



According to Alan Kraut, a professor of history at American University, language restricting immigration for those likely to become a public charge appeared in U.S. legislation as early as 1891, and throughout its history, the United States has courted immigrants but simultaneously "repelled them and was very not welcoming to [them] when they arrived." Since then, the Statue of Liberty has evoked passionate feelings as a symbol of freedom and immigration — and America's push and pull with it.

- Early symbolism: The Statue of Liberty was the idea of Edouard Laboulaye, a French abolitionist and jurist, who wanted to gift the United States something to symbolize freedom after the Civil War to also serve as a reminder of France and America's friendship, according to the National Parks Service.
When Edouard Laboulaye, the French abolitionist, came up with the idea of the Statue as a gift from the French people to Americans, his intent was to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States," Maria Cristina Garcia, a professor of American studies and history at Cornell University, told ABC News via email. "One early draft of the statue had Lady Liberty holding broken shackles in her hand. The shackles are now located at her feet, and are barely visible unless you are very high up (by helicopter, for example), which is one reason why Americans have forgotten this history."
The statue was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who, according to Kraut, was inspired by ancient symbols, including Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty...

- Emma Lazarus and The New Colossus: Lazarus was a young poet and social activist living in New York City of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish descent who could trace her roots back to the first Jews who came to North America, according to the National Park Service. Three years before the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in Bedloe's Island in the New York harbor, Lazarus was asked to write a poem as part of an arts festival to help raise money for the statue's pedestal. The poem's title, "The New Colossus," was inspired by "The Colossus of Rhodes" — the ancient statue of the Greek sun-god Helios on the island of Rhodes...

"The poem, like the shackles, is not immediately visible," Garcia, who is also a member of the History Advisory Committee of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island, said. "The fact that we are conscious of these powerful and deeply moving words today is because of the generations of artists, editorialists, and politicians, who have continually reminded us of their power."
- Lady Liberty and the New York Harbor: The location of the Statue of Liberty in the New York harbor — a major receiving port for immigrants in the 19th century — was a defining factor in the statue's symbolic "transformation," Kraut said...

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Bronze plaque with the New Colossous poem on the Statue of Liberty; Emma Lazarus