Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli’s twisting of the Emma Lazarus poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty “one of the most un-American things I’ve ever heard,” and noted that the statue had always been a beacon of hope for immigrants.
Albright also told CNN host Anderson Cooper:
“I think the Statue of Liberty is weeping.”
As HuffPost notes, Cuccinelli set off a firestorm of controversy with this remarks about immgration:
Cuccinelli, the acting head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, drew widespread ire on Tuesday after he defended the Trump administration’s new rule that stops legal immigrants who receive government benefits from becoming permanent citizens by suggesting the poem “The New Colossus” should now read: “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge.”
The former chief U.S. diplomat recalled that she had been a refugee twice in her life:
“Once from the Nazis and we were in England, and then we came to the United States when the Communists took over in Czechoslovakia.”
Albright added that her father chose to come to the United States for a reason that is perfectly expressed by the Statue of Liberty and the Lazarus poem:
“My father used to say that when we were in England, people would say, ‘We’re so sorry your country has been taken over by a terrible dictator, you’re welcome here and when are you going home?’ And when we came to the United States, people said, ‘We’re so sorry, you’re country’s been taken over by a terrible system, you’re welcome here and when will you become a citizen?’ And my father said, ‘That’s what made America a different country.’ And now we are forgetting that great history of our country.”
What was once a sacred promise of refuge has now become an unwelcoming country under President Donald Trump. This country used to stand for freedom and a fresh start for those escaping tyranny and violence. But now it’s a closed door.
“The Statue of Liberty is weeping.”
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright criticizes acting US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli’s comments about the Statue of Liberty https://t.co/LIgKMPEBCa pic.twitter.com/q1eZf9nDSP
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) August 15, 2019
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