“The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus (1)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land, (2)
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!”

But Now
Now tell those huddled masses they must wait,
Or rather, tell them they must all turn back.
They are not wanted here, if brown or black;
Their darker hues are an unwelcome trait.

We’re told that their genes might contaminate (3)
Our blood, as like hyenas, they attack
Our peaceful villages, to rape and sack;
Such fate awaits us, when they immigrate. (4)
Our government, with aliens beset,
Will swell the roles of those in poverty,
Which drives our nation deeper into debt
As liberals grant them unearned charity.
If they are welcomed, they become a threat
To our White Christian nation’s purity.

(1) Poem by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) first published in 1883, to help raise money for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, then cast on a bronze plaque and placed at the base of the statue in 1903.
(2) Referring to the Colossus of Rhodes, a giant statue of the sun god, Helios, erected in the Greek city of Rhodes in 280 BC and destroyed by an earthquake in 226 BC. It was estimated to be about 33 meters high, at that time, the tallest statue in the world.
(3) Donald Trump, December 17, 2023. He has also expressed the rest of the bigoted sentiments seen above at one time or another since 2015.
(4) Another of Trump’s claims that is contrary to fact. Statistics show that recent immigrants commit fewer crimes per capita than native born American citizens.