To the editor:

In 1883, the poet Emma Lazarus penned this well-known poem:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“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-lost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The mighty woman is the Statue of Liberty, which looks out over the New York City harbor. Unfortunately, these words no longer ring true. Those “huddled masses yearning to be free” are no longer welcome and those who have made it to our shores are being ejected without the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of due process for all.

A new state law, “New York for All Act” (S2235/A3506) will be on the docket in January. This act, if passed, will protect immigrant New Yorkers, preserve state and local resources for our communities and ensure that New York dollars cannot be diverted to carry out a cruel, politicized immigration agenda. The act broadly prohibits state and local officers from enforcing immigration law, funneling people into ICE custody and sharing sensitive information with federal immigration authorities.

I urge you to contact your state representatives to support this legislation. Contact Assemblyman-elect Michael Cashman at his Plattsburgh office, 518-562-1986 (no email address available yet) and Sen. Daniel Stec at stec@nysenate.gov. It is time once again to welcome those yearning to be free.

Phyllis Sinclair

Vermontville