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' inscription for the Statue of Liberty
That torch held by the chatelaine of Bedloe's Island is now used to examine the family trees of would-be immigrants. Since 1924, entry to the U.S. has been strictly rationed under the principle of national origins. Last week in the Senate, it was made clear that Congress intends to keep it thus.
This principle, which still guides U.S. immigration policy, takes the...
