“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-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” - plaque at the base of Statue of Liberty.

“Now, if you really want to fix the Crisis at the Southern Border, both humanitarian and otherwise, tell migrants not to come into our country unless they are willing to do so legally, and hopefully through a system based on merit. This way we have no problems at all!” - Donald Trump, June 3, 2016 (Twitter).

There is no mention of legal status or merit on the plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The sentiments the plaque invokes are symbolic of what our country stands for; what we have always stood for. There is nothing more indicative of how much we have lost our way as a country than the realization of this stark contrast between the words on the plaque at the base of the statue of Liberty and what Donald Trump tweeted.

Joel VanLuven

Spokane