Restore the Promise of the Statue of Liberty — Congress Must Acknowledge the Poem No Longer Reflects U.S. Policy
Sponsor from Congress
The Statue of Liberty is the most recognizable symbol of America’s values. Right now, its meaning does not match our reality.
Thousands of families are being denied asylum. Vulnerable people are being sent back into danger. Long-settled immigrants have had their legal status pulled and many face denaturalization and removal. Refugees are leaving the United States because they no longer feel safe here.
To leave the Statue’s inscription untouched is to pretend that nothing has changed.
A resolution recognizing this truth forces Congress, and the country, to confront the moral crisis at hand. It demands honesty. It demands accountability. And it declares that the American people will not quietly accept the erosion of our most fundamental ideals.
This is a moment for clarity.
If we believe in the lamp beside the golden door, we must act now, before her light is snuffed out.
Petition by
To:
Sponsor from Congress
From:
[Your Name]
For 140 years, the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty has stood as a moral commitment to the world. It is not merely a verse it is, and always has been, a promise of hope:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
Today, that promise is being openly abandoned.
Recent federal policies including the ending of asylum protections, mass expulsions, denaturalization efforts, forced repatriations, and widespread “reverse migration” have shattered the ideals expressed by Emma Lazarus and embodied in Lady Liberty herself.
If America will not honor the words on that plaque, those words must not stand unchallenged.
We call on members of Congress to introduce a “Sense of Congress” resolution stating that:
The inscription on the Statue of Liberty no longer reflects the actions or policies of the Executive Branch;
The National Park Service should temporarily shroud, cover, or mark the inscription to reflect this moral contradiction; and
Congress must work to restore asylum pathways, refugee protections, and legal avenues for those “yearning to breathe free.”
This action is symbolic, but symbols shape national conscience.
If America intends to stand by the values written at Liberty’s feet, we must defend them.
If America has abandoned those values, we must have the courage to say so.
Today we are asking for your help. Please help us hold our government to account by putting each of them on record. Please help us hold our communities together. Please help us keep Lady Libertys' lamp lighting the way through our golden door by signing this petition.