Days of Disgrace: America Tells Refugees to Pound Sand
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," reads the iconic welcome to the world's oppressed inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Emma Lazarus, the poet who penned those words, had herself helped Jewish refugees from the anti-Semitic pogroms of Eastern Europe who had fled to our shores in the late 19th century.
As America's 250th birthday approaches, it's not untimely to consider her message. It has not only inspired hope for uncountable people desperately in need of it, but helped shape America's proud, even lofty self-image as a refuge for the beaten down, where those threatened by persecution might yet have a chance for a decent life. After all, virtually all of us are descendants of those given the blessed opportunity to come to this country from elsewhere. Virtually all of our ancestors were "the Other," strangers forced to navigate poverty, and hatred, and ostracization and loneliness when they arrived.
That self-image has been the fuel for America's greatness. In his farewell address to the nation in January 1989, former President Ronald Reagan invoked the image of America as "the shining city on a hill." Reagan had a story in mind, that of an American sailor on the aircraft carrier Midway, patrolling the South China Sea in the 1980's. As Reagan told it, the sailor's crew "spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled,"'Hello American sailor. Hello, freedom man'."
Ronald Reagan would certainly be disgusted at President Donald Trump's derisive, belittling, bullying war on Emma Lazarus' and his own vision of America, a vision that has nurtured us since our founding. Last week featured another example.
In 1990, former President George H. W. Bush, a Republican, signed legislation creating the Temporary Protected Status program, designed to provide safe harbor here for refugees from countries deemed unsafe. Trump has set about dismantling the program, country by country.
When the administration terminated the program for the hundreds of thousands of Haitians here, litigation ensued. They argued that Haiti has long been unsafe, so the program could not be considered "temporary" as to it. The plaintiffs challenging the termination pointed out that nothing in Haiti had changed since its original designation; the administration itself has recently warned that no one should travel there due to kidnapping, terrorist activity, rampant crime and civil unrest.
A federal court sided with the plaintiffs, temporarily blocking the deportation of Haitian refugees until those challenging the government had had the opportunity to prove that racial discrimination was at least "a motivating factor in the decision to terminate the program for Haiti -- which was all they were required to show to legally nullify the termination decision. The court noted statements by Trump himself that Haitians "probably have AIDS," were eating the pets of residents in American communities, came from a "s---hole country" which was "filthy, dirty, disgusting" and were "poisoning" American blood.
The Republican-dominated U.S. Supreme Court reversed, ruling that the plaintiffs should not even be permitted to prove their case. There was nothing in Trump's language, they held, with any racial overtones, ruling that these statements were merely "heated." Justice Elena Kagan saw things differently, writing that Trump's language was "shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes."
Here's what's not disputable: Team Trump simply doesn't see America the same way Americans have traditionally seen it. "America's doors are closed, fully, to asylum seekers," crowed Trump advisor Steven Miller after the Supreme Court reversal. Conservative media host Megyn Kelly spoke for those who believe they are making America great again. "We don't want you," proclaimed Kelly to the Haitian community after the ruling. "We don't care if you're offended. Get out. Go home. Go back to your f---ing country."
Not exactly "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Not exactly Reagan's "shining city on a hill." But on our 250th birthday, that is where, and who, we are.
Jeff Robbins' latest book, "Notes From the Brink: A Collection of Columns about Policy at Home and Abroad," is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play. Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment and a longtime columnist, he writes on politics, national security, human rights and the Middle East.
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"give us your white, wealthy, criminal, christo-fascists yearning to live tax free ..."
but you have to make over a billion dollars a year
... and kick 25% of that up to trump.
Do they even understand words....heated words that carry racist overtones. Only trmp's words are implicit racism
Time for term limits of SCOTUS judges. Some of them are way past their prime
It's shocking that the Supreme Court saw nothing racial about Trump's comments. The "theyre eating the cats and dogs" is in itself racist.
The New Colossus
That is a good motto for a scrapyard or recycling center.
Is it possible to turn the statue around to face the opposite direction?
I have said that before or maybe sideways.
With a big NO VACANCY sign
There is no limiting principle to this nonsense from progressives . If you take it seriously. every person in the third world is entitled to move here and obtain welfare and once by means fair or foul, they can stay forever.
I hope Steven Miller is prosecuted for his corrupt ways
Or a good raging fire in Hell will do nicely
You mean we aren’t granting people who vacation in the countries they seek asylum from the right to stay here forever ? Or travel through through three safe countries to claim asylum?
Also instructive they can’t argue the court is wrong about what the law says.
This country is overcrowded now.
uh, no.
You could fit every human being on earth into the state of Texas and give each of them almost 300 sq ft. of personal space.
2,423,716,000,000 /8,300,000,000 = 292.01
sq ft. in texas earths population sq ft per person
And who is going to pay to resettle the Earth's population in Texas? Who's gong to be responsible for the infrastructure? Who's going to be responsible for educating all of them? Feeding all of them? Housing all of them? Where do we bury their trash and waste?
Immigration requires a heck of a lot more than space. In fact, their countries of origin have plenty of space.
and then remember that Alaska is at least 3 times the size of Texas
Is that what John said? He was making a point of how large Texas is. Not that he said to settle the Earth's population in it. Besides, if I was from Denmark I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in Texas. I lived in TX. Not that great
the earth is not running out of room
The whole earth is overcrowded
Do you want to live in a 300 square feet area?
No one wants 8 billion people to live in Texas. The point is the planet is not running out of room.
Overpopulation is causing the Global warming and climate change, we hear so much about, as well as many other problems
I've lived in less.
Did you like it?
You tell me when the military forces you into a small room you have to share with someone
Just because foreigners don't like it where they are or the place they are does not like them does not mean we have to take them in and put up with them
Haiti occupies only half the island of Hispaniola. There really is a land border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Why is only Haiti unsafe? Why is the Dominican Republic safe? They're on the same damned island. Haiti's problems obviously are not due to geography or local conditions. It's the Haitian people who have made Haiti unsafe.
Why do we use special immigration programs to reward those complicit in the destruction of their own country? Why should we allow Temporary Protected Status become a permanent pathway to citizenship for Haitians? Are we planning to assimilate into the Haitian culture? Are we going to continue allowing Haiti to be a festering cesspool of human despair just so we can harvest diversity and score political points?
The hate all up and down this seed is staggering. I never realized how many xenophobes existed on NT
When America was welcoming immigrants, they were pushing the Indians out (that is another issue in history). All that space is now gone
If you ever want a perfect example of how biased and dishonest progressive reporting is and how its leads to shocking ignorance among many progressives about Supreme Court rulings, this is a great example.
This law is what actually decided the case. Not mentioned anywhere in the article. imagine reading that law passes by congress and believing the court has the power to overturn the secretary’s revocation of temporary status,
What are those who want to let forgivers in willing to give up and pay extra for?