Statue of Liberty Poem: Give Me Your Poor

Also known as the Statue of Liberty poem, New Colossus and its famous last lines have become part of American history. Here is the sonnet in its entirety:

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-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

Donald Trump’s Immigration Principles Would’ve Barred His Own Grandfather

The Know-Nothing Party ultimately failed at mid-century to stop the immigration of both Irish and Germans. And because they failed, Frederich Christ Trump could immigrate to America in 1885. That decade, 5.2 million immigrants arrived in the U.S., and 3.7 million immigrants arrived the next decade. The unskilled German laborers competed with Americans. The skilled German craftsmen competed with Americans. The German farmers competed with Americans.
Some of the Americans lost jobs or income.
Today, there are nearly 50 million Americans of German ancestry. Many have hazy, romanticized notions of the time when their ancestors came to America. And some, like Trump, champion restrictionist views on immigration that would’ve barred their own grandfathers from coming here had bygone Americans applied them. This despite the fact that, compared to Hispanic immigration today, the waves of 19th-century immigration imposed far higher costs on those already here: Contagious diseases killed more people; those at the bottom of the economic ladder vying with newcomers for work had less of a safety net to fall back on if outcompeted; radical political ideas from abroad led to violent clashes; immigrant riots rocked numerous cities; and every cost was born by a much, much poorer America.