This is a title I really hated to post.
“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!”
Words on the 1903 bronze plaque located in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
President Biden on Friday said the treatment of Haitian migrants this week was “beyond an embarrassment.” “It sends the wrong message around the world,” Biden said. “It’s simply not who we are.” But what he said was a lie.
America’s history on its treatment of immigrants trying to escape life threatening situation proves that fact. Irish in the 1800s, Iraqis after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mexicans and Central Americans for decades — have encountered a hostile environment. Mexican farm workers have been allowed into the Untied States to pick our fruits and vegetables but never given legal status to live in the United States.
On May 13, 1939, the German transatlantic liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba. On the voyage were 937 passengers. Almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich. The US State Department in Washington, the US consulate in Havana, some Jewish organizations, and refugee agencies were all aware of the situation. The passengers themselves were not informed; most were ultimately compelled to return to Europe where many died at the hands of the Nazis.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Many Americans on the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic ills to Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”
A month before the 2020 presidential election, Biden stumped in Little Haiti in Miami. Biden promised Haitians that he would ensure that Haiti and the Haitian people are treated with the “respect and dignity that they deserve.”
Mr. President you and your predecessors have failed to be uphold the promises made. You should be ashamed but you probably aren’t. Someone should take President Biden to the Statue of Liberty.
Coast Contact 