Liberty Landfill

"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!"

So says the infamous bronze plaque mounted inside the pedestal of the Statute of Liberty, that great American icon situated prominently on a small island in the middle of New York harbor. The United States of America in the early 1900’s was still largely a nation of like immigrants ever since colonial times.

They came mostly from Europe. Many sought political and religious freedom. Others came for better economic opportunities, and some were fleeing extreme poverty and famine in their home countries. Most of them were indeed the wretched refuse of their teeming shores, tired, poor huddled masses of humanity yearning to breathe free.

It wasn’t easy for these determined people to become Americans and eventually live the American dream. There were plenty of hardships. They endured vicious discrimination from the earlier inhabitants. They often lived  in abject squalor housed in slums and tiny tenements. They were offered only the lowest of employment opportunities with the lowest wages.

There was no government welfare then. New immigrants were either on their own or had to depend on each other in those days. But through it all the vast majority of them pulled themselves out of poverty by means of sheer dogged perseverance, determination and hard work.

That was then, and this is now. America the land of liberty is becoming America the liberty landfill. Yes, the poor tired huddled masses; the wretched and homeless refuse of other nations are still coming in droves, just like always, but now they aren’t so much yearning to breathe free, as satisfied to become dependent upon the American government and the seemingly endless largess of taxpaying American citizens.

That’s right. About half of all new immigrants and immigrant households in America today are receiving welfare in one form or another.  Of those immigrants from our neighbors to the south, 73% from Mexico and Central America are on welfare.

These immigrants rely upon welfare at far higher rates than the American born population. And instead of relying upon each other for help, as they were inclined to do in former times, these new immigrants, many of whom are woefully uneducated, are actually helping each other take advantage of our welfare systems.

Donald Trump was right when he said that Mexico was not exactly sending its best people across our southern border. Most of them are here to collect welfare. Consequently, America is fast becoming a dumping ground – a liberty landfill.