John -- The director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ken Cuccinelli, just released a policy that makes it harder on working migrants to apply for green cards who don’t meet the department’s specified education and income standards.
This policy could deny green cards to individuals who have utilized public assistance. This rule is a punishment on the most marginalized, and yet another example of how xenphobic rhetoric can become policy.
In an interview with NPR, Cuccinelli altered the poem that is etched on the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”
The poem actually says:
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send me these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus, 1883
It’s clear what the Statue of Liberty is meant to represent, and Ken Cuccinelli doesn’t get to rewrite poems or our history. We must secure the values represented by Lady Liberty.
There is no doubt that our immigration system is broken. But under the current administration, the system is marred by extreme policies such as concentration camps on our southern border, family separation, the Musilm ban, mass deportation roundups and new immigration policies that align merit with wealth.
We must stop legislating from the White House. Electing an unbought, accountable Congress it not merely a concept -- it’s a necessity.
There’s a lot of mess to clean up. Can you contribute today to help us seat a new Congress that will get the work done?
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For a Congress that represents us,
Zeynab Day
Communications Director
Brand New Congress
This email is paid for by Brand New Congress PAC
Brand New Congress
brandnewcongress.org
[email protected]
PO Box 1024
Springfield, AR 72765
United States
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