Political Quotes

“Mr. President, for generations, the Statue of Liberty-- Lady Liberty we like to call her--has stood as a symbol of how open America has been to treating those fleeing oppression when they arrive on the shores of America. We hear those famous words written by Emma Lazarus: ``Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'' That is a vision that we can connect to because virtually every American family has family roots tied to immigrants and tied to people pursuing freedom and fleeing oppression--fleeing religious oppression, fleeing civil war, fleeing famine--but who come to the refuge of the United States of America, knowing that here they could be treated well and have a fair chance to thrive. In modern times, we have converted this into an asylum policy. An asylum policy means, if you are truly fleeing repression, oppression-- if you are truly fleeing danger and your life would be in danger if you returned--you could gain admission into the United States of America. In fact, we put into international treaties and into national law-- there it is--the torch, the beacon, that signals to the world that we stand for human rights. Yet now we are in a new and different place. On May 7, our Attorney General announced a dramatic change that is completely contrary to the Statue of Liberty.…”