As lawyers in New Jersey, the home of the Statue of Liberty, we take particular pride in the statue and the 1883 sonnet by Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus,” penned to raise funds for the pedestal on which the statue now stands in New York Harbor. A plaque of the sonnet installed on the pedestal in 1903 greets visitors:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips.

“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!”

Unfortunately, America’s immigration policy has not always matched the aspirational ideal of the Lazarus verse on either of its two prongs—welcoming immigrants without regard for their origin or financial condition.