--- title: Trump Immigration Head Rewords Statue of Liberty Poem description: A top Trump immigration official edited the poem on the Statue of Liberty after announcing the Administration's new immigration restrictions. canonical: https://time.com/5651068/trump-immigration-ken-cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-08-13T17:53:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T22:05:53.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Immigration Head Ken Cuccinelli: Statue of Liberty Poem About People 'Coming From Europe' og:description: 'Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet' og:url: https://time.com/5651068/trump-immigration-ken-cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90456d2aa67a96ba/698a013e457a528883d629f4/ken-cuccinelli.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli Press Briefing At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Immigration Head Ken Cuccinelli: Statue of Liberty Poem About People 'Coming From Europe' twitter:description: 'Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90456d2aa67a96ba/698a013e457a528883d629f4/ken-cuccinelli.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Immigration Head Ken Cuccinelli: Statue of Liberty Poem About People 'Coming From Europe' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Trump Administration Now Plans to Deny Green Cards to Immigrants on Public Assistance [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Administration Now Plans to Deny Green Cards to Immigrants on Public Assistance](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sg3dAJlS.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2019-08-12. Trump Administration Now Plans to Deny Green Cards to Immigrants on Public Assistance_ by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:05 PM UTCPublished: Aug 13, 2019 5:53 PM UTC  Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), takes a question while speaking in the White House press briefing room in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Aug. 12, 2019\. The Trump Administration on Monday unveiled a new rule that would enable the government to deny green cards to immigrants who have used or are deemed likely to use government benefits. Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), takes a question while speaking in the White House press briefing room in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Aug. 12, 2019\. The Trump Administration on Monday unveiled a new rule that would enable the government to deny green cards to immigrants who have used or are deemed likely to use government benefits. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:05 PM UTCPublished: Aug 13, 2019 5:53 PM UTC A top Trump immigration official offered an edit to the iconic poem engraved on the Statue of Liberty in the wake of the [Administration’s newly announced plan](https://time.com/5650284/green-cards-immigration-public-charge-trump/) making it tougher for some immigrants to obtain green cards. Schoolchildren nationwide are often taught Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “[The New Colossus](https://poets.org/poem/new-colossus),” which reads, in part, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acting director Ken Cuccinelli suggested a tweak to the poem while [speaking with NPR](https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750726795/immigration-chief-give-me-your-tired-your-poor-who-can-stand-on-their-own-2-feet) Tuesday morning. “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge,” Cuccinelli said while trying to justify the new rule from the Trump administration that will limit legal immigration. Cuccinelli took his meaning of the poem even further later on Tuesday, when he said Lazarus’ words were talking about immigrants who come from Europe while [speaking on CNN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks6t4eTegqU). Cuccinelli’s comments on the poem came a day he announced the new plan to [deny green cards to applicants who use public assistance](https://time.com/5650284/green-cards-immigration-public-charge-trump/?xid=tcoshare#cb8f9029-8ced-4413-8241-0d9315db3c19?utm%5Fsource=twitter.com&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fcampaign=social-share-article), such as Medicaid and food stamps. Starting in October, immigration services will measure whether applicants are likely to become a “public charge” for using public assistance services — and that factor will weigh against them in green card consideration, he said. The acting immigration head also addressed Lazarus’ poem during Monday’s announcement, when he was asked if the words should be removed in the wake of the new rule. “Well, I’m certainly not prepared to take anything down off the Statue of Liberty,” he told reporters. “We have a long history of being one of the most welcoming nations in the world on a lot of bases — whether you be an asylee, whether you be coming here to join your family or immigrating yourself.” The move was heavily criticized by immigration rights groups who argue that the Trump Administration is [aiming to reduce legal immigration](https://time.com/5650284/green-cards-immigration-public-charge-trump/?xid=tcoshare#cb8f9029-8ced-4413-8241-0d9315db3c19?utm%5Fsource=twitter.com&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fcampaign=social-share-article). While federal law enables immigration officials to determine whether applicants will be a burden, the new rule breaks down exactly who will be considered a “public charge.” Under the regulation, an applicant who receives one or more designated forms of public assistance for more than 12 months in aggregate within a 36-month period would have that weigh against them in the process of getting a green card, Cuccinelli said. Cuccinelli argued that the new rule would help to ensure that immigrants won’t become a burden, touting what the administration sees as the virtues of self-sufficiency during Monday’s announcement. He rejected criticism that the regulation targets poor people. “A poor person can be prepared to be self-sufficient,” he said. “Many have been through the history of this country. So let’s not look at that as the be-all, end-all, and it’s not the deciding factor.” Speaking [with NPR](https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750726795/immigration-chief-give-me-your-tired-your-poor-who-can-stand-on-their-own-2-feet) on Tuesday, Cuccinelli said welfare benefits would be one among several factors officials will use to consider whether an applicant would be a “public charge.” “If they don’t have future prospects of being legal permanent residents without welfare, that will be counted against them,” he said. When asked if Lazarus’ words on the Statue of Liberty — “Give me your tired, your poor” — were still a part of the American ethos, Cuccinelli responded: “They certainly are,” before adding that any “tired and poor” people who came to the U.S. should be able to “stand on their own two feet” and not “become a public charge.” The same day, Cuccinelli was [asked on CNN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks6t4eTegqU) about what he thought America stands for in reference to a line Lazarus wrote about taking in those “yearning to breathe free.” He said, “Well, of course that poem was referring back to people coming from Europe where they had class-based societies where people were considered wretched if they weren’t in the right class.” Lazarus [wrote the poem](https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/colossus.htm) in 1883, when the majority of immigrants to the U.S. came from Ireland and Germany, according to the [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/from-ireland-to-germany-to-italy-to-mexico-how-americas-source-of-immigrants-has-changed-in-the-states-1850-to-2013/). But not all immigrants at the time were from Europe—a large number of Chinese people came to the U.S. between 1849 and 1882 when the California gold rush took off, according to the [Library of Congress](http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/chinimms/chinimms.html). The rush of Chinese immigration came to an end in 1882, when the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in response to anti-Chinese sentiments throughout the country following an economic downturn in the 1870s. By 1903, when Lazarus’ words were put on a bronze plaque and added to the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. was also seeing some immigration from Mexico as mining and agriculture became big industries in the Southwest. Following the Mexican Revolution, the [number of immigrants](https://time.com/3742067/history-mexican-immigration/) coming from Mexico grew from 20,000 per year between 1910 and 1920 to about 50,000 to 100,000 a year in the 1920s. Trump also weighed in on Cuccinelli’s additions to the poem. Asked if there should be changes to the Statue of Liberty poem, he replied, “It’s about America first. I don’t think it’s fair to have the American taxpayer pay for people to come in to the United States … I’m tired of seeing our taxpayer paying for people to come into the country and immediately go on welfare and various other things. So I think we’re doing it right.” > [](https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1161310517861986304) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5651068/trump-immigration-ken-cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5651068/trump-immigration-ken-cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty/"},"headline":"Trump Immigration Head Ken Cuccinelli: Statue of Liberty Poem About People 'Coming From Europe'","datePublished":"2019-08-13T17:53:05.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T22:05:53.000Z","description":"'Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet'","url":"https://time.com/5651068/trump-immigration-ken-cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty/","keywords":["Immigration","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90456d2aa67a96ba/698a013e457a528883d629f4/ken-cuccinelli.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90456d2aa67a96ba/698a013e457a528883d629f4/ken-cuccinelli.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli Press Briefing At The White House","caption":"U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli Press Briefing At The White House","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5651068/trump-immigration-ken-cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty/","name":"Trump Immigration Head Ken Cuccinelli: Statue of Liberty Poem About People 'Coming From Europe'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump Administration Now Plans to Deny Green Cards to Immigrants on Public Assistance","description":"Trump Administration Now Plans to Deny Green Cards to Immigrants on Public Assistance","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/sg3dAJlS/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-08-12T16:55:54.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sg3dAJlS.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5651068/trump-immigration-ken-cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty/","duration":"PT1M40S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5651068/trump-immigration-ken-cuccinelli-statue-of-liberty/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```