This archive report was first published on 15 August 2019.
On August 14, 2019, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, acting director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, sparked controversy by altering the Statue of Liberty's poem to read: 'Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge.'
Published on August 15, 2019, this alteration was met with widespread criticism, particularly from presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who tweeted: 'Our values are etched in stone on the Statue of Liberty. They will not be replaced. And I will fight for those values and for our immigrant communities.'
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 'The Other America' speech at Stanford University shed light on America's history of hypocrisy towards freedom and equality. He stated: 'In 1863 the Negro was freed from the bondage of physical slavery. But at the same time, the nation refused to give him land to make that freedom meaningful.'
The Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom and opportunity, stands with its back to America and its face towards Europe, highlighting the country's historical preference for supporting European immigrants over non-white individuals.
