'The New Colossus' and Immigration: 2017

Abstract

The site of the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World is Liberty Island, New York. The statue portrays the sending out of the American message of liberty.

These days, there is the statue, but there is no message. Twenty-first-century America has no liberty, because it has unbounded government.

The United States government, state governments, and local governments are authoritarian, sometimes semi-totalitarian. Capitalism was displaced by state capitalism and by crony capitalism. Private-property rights are weak.

Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet, “The New Colossus”, in 1883. It advocates mass immigration to the United States. A line-by-line analysis of the sonnet proves that it is terrible poetry.

The immigration authority of the United States government was exercised, in distant decades, to support the United States. Immigration was controlled. Criteria for immigration to the United States included quantification, restriction, and prohibition of immigration based on race, national origin, political beliefs, and personal characteristics.

The same immigration authority of the United States government was exercised, in recent decades, to undermine the United States. Constant immigration was substituted for controlled immigration. Disregard of the immigration law became the standard operating procedure of the United States government. Consequently, contempt for the immigration law became the attitude problem of illegal aliens.

Changes in immigration law, to put an end to illegal immigration into the United States and to remove illegal aliens from the United States, are suggested.

Keywords: American exceptionalism, Arizona v. United States, Bedloe’s Island, Chinese Exclusion Case, Ellis Island, Enoch Powell, Immigration and Nationality Act, islamophobia, Obama, Romeike

JEL Classification: K10, K14, K39, K42