Liberty’s ‘huddled masses’ are not illegals

The Statue of Liberty, that grande dame of Democracy who endless holds aloft freedom's torch, must feel today more and more the burdens of Atlas, the mythical Greek Titan who held the whole world on his shoulders. This towering symbol of all things beautiful and uniquely American communicates these words of compassion: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." This humanitarian ideal and these inspiring words on the statue's pedestal—immortalized in the 1883 poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus—do not refer to the tsunami of illegals at our porous borders bringing with them all manners of long-term societal problems in their wake: disease, crime and poverty.