In 1883, Emma Lazarus, entered a contest that helped to fund the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty stands. She wrote the winning sonnet that was engraved in bronze and mounted inside that pedestal.

The part of the sonnet that most Americans know well is the ending: “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!”

A less familiar part of that same sonnet some may recall: “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!”

Maybe we need to take that Colossus down. America seems to have stepped away from its welcoming theme. We’ve relabeled those immigrants to America seeking a better life. The tired, poor, huddled masses and homeless are now called criminals. Thugs. Murderers. Rapists. Drug dealers. And we build walls and talk about closing our borders. Perhaps America needs to rethink the Colossus.

I’ve met many people who have immigrated to America in recent years, still believing what Emma Lazarus expressed in her sonnet. The ones I’ve met aren’t suited for the new labels. They are individuals, families and children escaping extreme poverty, oppression, corruption and violence in the countries they leave. They seek the promise, the dream of a better life in America.

Many of them leave loved ones behind in the hope of reuniting with them in America later. Some send part of their earnings to the people they left behind to ease their burden, while they live crowded together with other immigrants in America in order to cut costs .

That is not to say there are no people with bad intent flowing in and out of America. But it is to say that the current profile of the immigrant does not line up with the current labels. They are, for the most part, poor, oppressed, desperate people trying to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Why else would they make the treacherous trek across the desert, or load in masses into boats and vehicles, where many don’t survive? Why don’t they just follow the legal process?

The answer is time and money. They don’t have either.

Like all processes that help disenfranchised people in America, the process to immigrate legally is complex, and is further complicated by the countries they come from. Plus, it costs a lot of money. And it takes a very long time. Many people who are escaping violence, oppression and hardship are not educated and are unable to follow the process unassisted. And there is a sense of urgency to do something now. So, they risk their lives by coming across the border illegally.

Maybe America is full, and can’t continue to revel in the proclamation that it is a welcoming place. If we decide that is true, let’s take the Colossus down and figure out what we are. Let’s stop contradicting what we said back in 1903 with our actions of 2024. Maybe someone can write a new sonnet. Then we can stop putting incorrect labels on decent people who are desperate for a better life.

Instead, let’s say America has all that we can handle now. We cannot help the immigrants anymore. Of course, we’ll also have to figure out who will work our fields and do the hard labor. And we will need to start taking care of the domestic work we have deemed ourselves too busy to do. That, or we’ll have to start paying higher wages to get those jobs done. That’s what I think.