Fury as Trump official says poem on Statue of Liberty refers to 'people from Europe'

As some like 1SG (Join to see) and SFC (Join to see) have pointed out the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France and not necessarily tied to immigration. However, the poem written by Emma Lazarus to raise money for the construction of the base or the statue was directly tied to immigration. The idea of immigrants seeing the Statue of Liberty when entering the harbor was a key reason for her to write it.

http://www.ladytorch.com/statue-of-liberty-poem.html

Ken Cuccinelli also got it wrong when he spoke of a contemporary "public charge" rule on immigration. They were not culling people based on being poor, instead they were not letting in the sick or disabled. I.e. people that had obvious physical or mental handicaps that would make them unable to become productive members of society.

It's amazing that we even have to have these discussions. For most of my life at least we were mostly as a nation in agreement with these things and considered them "what makes America great". Now a group of people comes along and wants to change all that and a surprising number of people are willing to look the other way and allow them to do it.

The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom and a gift from the country of France on the occasion of our Centennial.
It took on additional meaning to many when nearby Ellis Island became the primary immigration processing facility on the east coast (as the Golden Gate Bridge did on the west coast as immigrants processed through the Presidio).
Once again, our inability to teach history gives us ill-informed arguments.
That does not excuse how profoundly stupid that comment was from an administration official. Should he need an education, the National Archives are right down the street.

It's HIS opinion. Not mine or yours.