Lady Liberty vs. Donald Trump

Statue of Liberty

A visit to the Statue of Liberty followed by the nearby Ellis Island nowadays is very striking. It’s clear that, since Emma Lazarus wrote her poem “The New Colossus” in 1883 to help raise funds for construction of the Statue’s pedestal, and especially after Lazarus’ poem was affixed to the pedestal in 1903, Lady Liberty has stood as a welcoming beacon to immigrants, for many of whom the Statue was their first glimpse of America. Here are the lines of “The New Colossus”:

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!”

This idea of an America that welcomes and gives new freedom to immigrants who were enslaved by oppression and persecution, however, has been under constant attack by Donald Trump and the officials Trump hires, like White House anti-immigration advisor Stephen Miller. Indeed, Trump’s very first speech announcing his presidential campaign in June 2015, delivered at the Trump Tower just a few miles from the Statue of Liberty, was an anti-foreigner and anti-immigrant screed that contained these lines:

The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. It’s true. And these aren’t the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you, they’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [sic]. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.

Since Trump delivered that speech and entered the White House, we know what happened. Trump instituted an anti-Muslim ban on foreign nationals entering the United States; he instituted the inhumane family separation policy; he hyped up false fears about a migrant “caravan” before the 2018 midterm elections; and he even continues to try to build a Medieval-style wall on our southern border despite its unpopularity and ineffectiveness.

We now have a battle between two competing visions of America: We are the country that welcomes immigrants, including “exiles,” who are fleeing hardship and even violence at home. Or we are the country that fears and loathes “Scary Brown People,” including Latinos, Muslims, and even African-Americans whose ancestors were kidnapped and brought here to build, by force, the agricultural base of the American South. Donald Trump’s vision must not win.

Photo by William Warby, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/qEwG2G