Letter: Live up to the Statue of Liberty poem's meaning

The Statue of Liberty poem says: "Give me your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

And Trump adds: We will break up your families and scatter them all over in unsanitary conditions, We will send you back to Mexico even if you are not from there, I'll make the asylum process so difficult that it takes 10 years to get a court date and in the meantime, you are on your own. Seeking asylum is just an excuse for not having foresight for where you were born … You should have chosen wisely.

Never mind that the crime rate among immigrants is lower that the general public. Out of 100,000 people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, 20,000 are in college and have become good citizens. The fact that people have traveled a thousand miles with what they could carry, braving bandits and the desert is an indicator of what kind of people they are - willing to give up everything they know to come here to better themselves by being hardworking American citizens.

Unless you are Native American or an African brought here for enslavement, your ancestors did the same thing by leaving everything behind hoping for a new life here.

That's the kind of people I want here, the ones with the fortitude to face the unknown and make something out of themselves even if they are just a day laborer or a busboy.

Or you can tear down the statue!

Raleigh Sutton

Elgin