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A Trump administration immigration official has altered the passage found on the Statue of Liberty.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” reads the statue’s inscription.
The head of Citizenship and Immigration Services, however, has added a caveat.
To the end of poem, Ken Cuccinelli tacked on the words: “who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”
The inscription found on the statue, titled The New Colossus, was written in 1883 by New York-born poet Emma Lazarus.
Cuccinelli, after altering her words, argued that the poem was referring to “people coming from Europe.”
The change comes in defense of policy changes, as Cuccinelli announced on Monday a new immigration regulation.
The new “public charge rule” is designed to deny legal migrants access to various public benefits, including food and housing. Its proponents claim it is intended to underpin American “ideals of self-sufficiency.” Critics, however, argue the rule will prevent disadvantaged, low-income residents from being able to seek help.
Published Monday in the Federal Register, the regulation is set to take effect on October 15, 2019.
NPR’s Rachel Martin asked Cuccinelli whether the original poem’s words still applied.
“Would you also agree that Emma Lazarus’s words etched on the Statue of Liberty, ‘Give me your tired, give me your poor,’ are also a part of the American ethos?” she asked.
Cuccinelli responded: “They certainly are,” before reciting the first seven words and then adding his own modification.
He also noted that the plaque was put up “at almost the same time as the first public charge [law] was passed.” He described that as “very interesting timing.”
The original passage does not mention anything about self-sufficiency or standing on one’s “own two feet.”
Rather, it says: “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-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Cuccinelli said that immigrants to the U.S. are welcome, so long as they meet the newly added requirements. They should be able to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” he said, “as in the American tradition.”
When asked by CNN anchor Erin Burnett if the change in policy might “change the definition of the American dream,” he said that people are invited to join us here “as a privilege.”
He added: “No one has a right to become an American who isn’t born here as an American.”
Cuccinelli later pushed back when met with claims he’d attempted to re-write the poem, saying folks were “twisting” his words.
Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke also posted a clip of the interview online. The Trump administration, he said, seems to “think the Statue of Liberty only applies to white people.”
It is unlikely the new rule will affect immigrants who have already become permanent U.S. residents. Additionally, it does not apply to asylum applicants or refugees either.
However, those applying for green cards, visa extensions, or US citizenship will be affected by the change. This applies especially to those unable to meet income requirements or deemed likely to require public benefits like Medicaid.
There are currently an estimated 22 million legal U.S. residents that lack citizenship, many of whom may be affected.
