I WAS JUST THINKING: Lady Liberty or barbed/razor wire?

By Norma Adams-Wade

What to do about immigrants

Call it either a dilemma or deliberate travesty.

The Statue of Liberty – “Lady Liberty” – says “give me your tired, your poor” on the east coast, while on the southern border, Texas Governor Greg Abbott considers the forbidden possibility of shooting unwanted migrants.

My, how things have changed in more than a century and a half since the idea of a welcoming statue was conceived shortly after the Civil War ended.

The Mason-Dixon Line seems as clear as ever while the current heated political climate has the nation brazenly resurrecting the term “civil war.” Those two words increasingly describe the angry standoff between federal and state leaders clashing over how to handle the burgeoning influx of migrants illegally crossing the Texas southern border from Mexico.

No easy answers

There seems to be no easy answers while watching endless national news reports about the near crisis at the southern border. I was just thinking…when did America change from welcoming immigrants to placing deadly barriers to keep them out?

Admittedly, each of the two opposing sides in the argument seem to make a few valid points.

U.S. President Joe Biden argues that the USA is a nation of immigrants and that it makes sense to welcome refugees and immigrants coming here to seek a safer, better life and more opportunities.

On the other side, Abbott and conservative proponents argue that “illegal aliens,” “undocumented workers,” and “undocumented noncitizens” take jobs from the state’s legal residents, bring in crime, and make life untenable for residents who live and own land on the border.

Currently researchers say the daily influx of migrants coming across the southern border has swelled from a monthly average of about 40,000 five years ago to more than 300,000 monthly by the end of 2023.

Even with social and political turmoil escalating across the globe, who would have predicted that the statue’s welcoming invitation to refugees and immigrants would swell USA numbers to such a degree?

So, what is the solution? Disassemble Lady Liberty? Close all the borders? Or, find a way to both welcome and operate humane, sensible control methods that implement the monument’s humanity.

Abbott’s border tactics

Prior to Abbott, southern border wall-building began escalating during World War I when leaders used walls and tall fences. Since taking office as governor in 2015, Abbott has attempted various drastic methods to stop the migrant invasion along the southern border.

His tactics have included busing migrants to other cities and leaving them there, using National Guard and state troopers to patrol the borders, placing buoy anchors – dangerous floating under-water traps — in the Rio Grande River in the Gulf of Mexico, and place razor/barbed wire along the river’s edge.

Biden’s administration has opposed most of Abbott’s tactics. Former President Donald Trump used the southern border as a popular campaign strategy when he began his 2015 Presidential campaign. After being elected, Trump failed to fulfill his audacious campaign promise that he would make Mexico pay for a border wall.

History of “Lady Liberty”statue

Prominent people in the 1860s and 1870s who played important roles in conceiving and creating the statue include French descendant and staunch American Civil War abolitionist Edouard Rene de Laboulaye; sculptor Frederic Bartholdi; and poet Emma Lazarus who wrote the famous inscription, “Give me your tired, your poor…” Lazarus largely supported Jewish refugees at the time and wrote the poem as part of a fundraising effort to fund a pedestal for the statue in 1883.

Her sonnet was placed on a wall inside the statue pedestal in 1903. Portions of the sonnet became the very quotable words that educators use to convey to students that America is the world’s greatest nation.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “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!”

-Emma Lazarus

Little-noticed broken chains on ankle

It is interesting that the idea for the Statue of Liberty came up during the period of the Civil War, and just as interesting arose with a link to France.

Why France?

History tells us that that country was experiencing its own inner conflict and Laboulaye imagined the statue as a gift from France to America, hoping to inspire quests for liberty in both countries.

The link to the Civil War explains the broken chain almost hidden under Lady Liberty’s ankle and slightly under her clothing.

It was to symbolize the end of American slavery during the period when the statue idea was conceived. Few people even today know about the broken chain on her ankle.

Where to from here?

So, the question remains, what do we do with “Lady Liberty” in today’s hostile atmosphere? No resolution of the standoff between Abbott and Biden seems to be on the horizon. Do we disassemble her and send her back to France — politely saying, “No thank you?”

Trump as well as former President Barack Obama had questionable tactics in dealing with the border crisis. Regardless of good motives, actions fell short of noble. Elected officials across the land have offered little to no help in solving the crisis.

Is a Constitutional Convention called for? A national election where voters decide the fate of immigrants? Meanwhile, it appears that razor wire, buoy barriers, busing, state troopers and the National Guard will continue to prevail.

Any ideas out there?

Norma Adams-Wade, is a proud Dallas native, University of Texas at Austin journalism graduate and retired Dallas Morning News senior staff writer. She is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and was its first southwest regional director. She became The News’ first Black full-time reporter in 1974. norma_adams_wade@yahoo.com.