“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
— Caption on the Statue of Liberty, written by poet Emma Lazarus
“So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens in the land of Egypt.”
— Deuteronomy 10:19
Artist Amy Sherald has canceled her exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution, which had been scheduled to run from September 2025 through February 2026. Ms. Sherald was concerned that her painting of the Statue of Liberty in a transgender portrayal would be removed by the Trump administration, which has denounced it as “divisive.”
Don’t get me wrong. The painting is vulgar. Moreover, it’s a misrepresentation rather than an interpretation, as the Statue of Liberty, sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi from 1876 to 1886, is deliberate in its strong female identity. Its pattern is that of the 1830 painting Lady Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix.
But considering the contempt President Donald Trump holds for immigrants, who is he to criticize any treatment of the Statue of Liberty? The statue personifies the nation’s tradition as a haven for desperate immigrants fleeing tyranny and poverty.
As for the quote from Deuteronomy, it’s a safe bet Trump has never read it. He purports Christianity, hawks Bibles desecrated with government emblems, and calls it his favorite book. But when asked, Trump is unable to cite a single passage of the Bible in which he finds any significance. Face it: Trump is illiterate in terms of scripture.
In the early centuries of Christianity, Saint Jerome stated that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of God. That’s too judgmental. Many of the faithful are not well-read. Would Saint Jerome deem the illiterate unworthy to receive the word of God?
On the other hand, the Bible is the rock of Christianity, the country’s majority religion. And a president who yearns to identify himself with the Bible should be familiar with its content. Moreover, the above quote from Deuteronomy is only one of dozens from both the Old and New Testaments that implores us to greet the alien.
Of course, Trump insists the roundup is limited to illegal immigrants. Truth be told, by no means marginal numbers of those immigrants in custody are legal. Some are even U.S. citizens. And the vast majority have committed no crime(s). Typical of the immigrants arrested are those who work and pay taxes.
Immigration is an institution blessed by both secular and spiritual sources (specifically the Statue of Liberty and the Bible). Trump has an appreciation for neither. He continues to tear families apart and deploy ICE agents in a reign of terror. In the name of the Statue of Liberty (for which Trump has no more respect than has Amy Sherald) and the Bible (to which Trump purports a false attachment), it’s time for a halt in the war on immigrants.
Today, the targets are Latin and Arab Americans. Don’t think for a moment it can’t be Irish, Polish or Italian Americans. Indeed, not too long ago in our own history, European immigrants were treated in the same manner as those now in custody. Most of us have more in common with jailed immigrants than we might care to admit.
John O’Neill is an Allen Park freelance writer and a graduate of Wayne State University. He attends St. Mary Magdalen in Melvindale.
