Look on the bright side. The Statue of Liberty is still there, at the mouth of New York Harbor. Facing southeast, to welcome immigrants arriving aboard ships. Lifting her lamp to light the golden door.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …” is still emblazoned on a plaque at the feet of the Mother of Exiles. “Send these, the homeless tempest-tossed to me. “
There is no plan — no public plan anyway — to take her down and sell the copper for scrap. Or jackhammer away Emma Lazarus’s famous poem praising “a mighty woman.” Or remove the torch and refashion her uplifted right hand to display an extended middle finger.
Not to give anyone ideas. Defacing national monuments is already in the air — talk has resumed of adding Donald Trump’s face to Mount Rushmore.
The statue remains, for now. Only the concept behind her is being scuttled, the American welcome mat yanked away, again. The golden door slammed shut.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — ICE — was busy in Chicago and across the country Monday. Hundreds of immigrants were arrested here, thousands nationwide, and while those arrested were portrayed as murders and rapists, facts were scarce.
I have a feeling that when the facts are known — and we can’t assume the truth will ever be known, this being 2025 America — the bulk of deportees will end up with having committed parking offenses, and of course, the unforgivable crime of being here in the first place. Which is what this is all about, and why Donald Trump is president — so we can throw out the foreigners along with their crime and disease and strange languages and get back to this country as we imagined it to be in the 1950s.
A certain brand of foreigners, of course. From Mexico and South America, primarily. They haven’t rounded up the Norwegians, yet. I contacted the French consulate in Chicago to see if their people here are on edge. Let’s just say, they’re not. The elimination of diversity efforts in government and anti-discrimination laws give further proof, as if more were needed, of what this is really about.
The effort focused on Chicago. Here is where border czar Tom Homan was striding around, joined by — in that note of surreal horror that all true nightmares require — TV’s Dr. Phil, , offering the ripping apart of families as entertainment, edging toward the strafed lifeboat full of refugees in George Orwell’s “1984.” Red meat for red state audiences.
Remember why Chicago is being singled out. What is our crime again? Oh yes, we are a “sanctuary city,” welcoming immigrants, who have so overrun the place that Chicago’s population has been flat for 30 years. Chicago had more people in 1925 than it has today. We’re being punished for seeing a situation clearly — we need residents — and acting upon it. Expect more of that.
Facts offer little comfort, little warmth against the icy blast of rhetoric blowing from Washington. But they bear repeating. Not just Chicago, but America needs the population. Immigrants are harder working, more law-abiding than natural-born citizens — it makes sense, when you consider you could be deported for a speeding ticket. Ejecting them is both bad policy and bad economics.
Pointing out hypocrisy in MAGA world is like remarking upon the color of the sky (“Look, there’s blue! And that part, blue. And more blue over there!”) But Trump pardoning insurrectionists who assaulted police officers out of one corner of his mouth, while damning immigrants for not having their paperwork in order out of the other, would be breathtaking, were we not already so winded.
At the Statue of Liberty’s dedication on Oct. 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland said something that bears repeating: “We are not here today to bow before the representation of a fierce and war-like god, filled with wrath and vengeance. But we joyously contemplate instead our own deity keeping watch and ward before the open gates of America.”
“The open gates of America” is not a phrase even the most lefty Democrat would dare utter today. And bowing before wrath and vengeance — that’s the latest dance craze, is it not? We’ve installed a government’s worth of yes-men, grovelers and bootlickers, with countless Americans hot to dive in and join the party.
The Statue of Liberty was the tallest structure in New York City between the time of her completion and when the Empire State Building topped out 43 years later. But her skin is very thin — 0.09 inches, thinner than two pennies placed together.
Liberty is far more delicate than it looks. Exactly how fragile, we are about to discover.