Liberty Island and Ellis Island lie at the entrance to New York City.
On Liberty Island stands the iconic Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island has its own statue, not as tall perhaps, but equally iconic. It is of Annie Moore.
Although the two islands are separated by a stretch of water, they are united by words from a poem. Engraved on a bronze plaque inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty are these lines:
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!
They come from “The New Colossus”, an 1883 sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus.
Though the words are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, they belong equally to Ellis Island and its statue.
Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. On New Year’s Day 1892, a 17-year-old girl named Annie Moore stepped onto the island and into a new life in America.
She and her two younger brothers had just completed a 12-day journey across the Atlantic, beginning at Cobh in County Cork, Ireland. Annie is recognised as the first person to pass through Ellis Island’s immigration station.
Today, on our Roman Calendar, we are encouraged to pray for refugees and migrants. These are people who either choose to leave their place of birth (migrants) or are forced to (refugees), and who then seek a safe place to live.
As midterm elections approach in the US, President Donald Trump has highlighted 25 achievements, including halting refugee admissions.
Perhaps he and our senior Cabinet minister Shane Jones ought to visit Liberty Island together and read the sonnet written in bronze on the pedestal beneath the Statue of Liberty.
Mr Jones has described mass immigration from India as a “butter chicken tsunami”.
In late January 2025, during a debate in Parliament, he also yelled “send the Mexicans home” across the debating chamber. The remark was directed at Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March, who was born in Mexico.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a prominent far-right party, combines strict nationalism with an anti-immigration platform. Perhaps its members, too, might do well to visit the Statue of Liberty.