“The words of Emma Lazarus’ poem The New Colossus on the Statue of Liberty may be said to be our nation’s ‘mission statement’ in purest verse.”

The poem is beautiful, but it was written during one of the most racist, discriminatory times in our history. In fact, a year before the poem was written 1882, the Chinese Exclusion acts were put into place. You cannot take the truth, and morph it into a perfect little box. The truth is we are currently seeing a revival of religious discrimination comparable to the 19th century. America is great, but she has never been kind to immigrants.