A famous sonnet at the Statue of Liberty reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

This line has often been used to describe the openness of the United States to immigrants. However, in our ever-changing age, these words no longer hold the same meaning as they used to, and for the most part this may not be a bad thing.

Recent history has shown the Immigration and Naturalization Service has a hard time keeping itself up on all immigrants and their visas. It does not help that many people sneak into the country illegally across both the Canadian and Mexican borders, though primarily it’s the latter.

Maybe it should be perceived as some sort of compliment that so many people want to come here to live the great American Dream. But it seems as though it has turned into the American Curse.

While immigration has always been touted as a way to increase diversity, the immigration numbers today show a trend that is dominated by a single nationality. From 1965 to 2000, nearly 4.3 million immigrants have come from Mexico. That is three times larger then the next immigration group, which consists of 1.4 million from the Philippines.

To put the influx of immigrations from Mexico into perspective, during the height of immigration (from 1880 to 1930) the largest group of immigrants was Italian, at nearly 4.6 million strong. If Mexican immigration holds at the rate of the past 35-plus years, then they will come in at around 6.1 million immigrants.

Traditionally, most immigrants have come to the United States with very little money and often become the urban lower classes. Poor neighborhoods in New York once dominated by Italian and Irish immigrants are now often dominated by Hispanics and Asians, together making up the majority of immigrants today. In a country that has been suffering with poverty problems for decades, is it wise to accept in so many from other countries, when the majority of these individuals will add to our lower classes?

We also have many concerns with security concerning immigrants. Even though we have been without a major attack in a little over a year and a half, there are many countries – particularly in the Middle East – where the view of the United States is not a good one.

Recently, people have started to complain about how we, as a nation, are treating some immigrants. Many believe we are unrightfully detaining such people and treating them as guilty until proven innocent, rather than the traditional “innocent until proven guilty” method. However, who said that these non-citizen immigrants should benefit from the same laws as everyone born in America or naturalized American citizens?

The fact is their treatment is not as harsh as it could be, and in a nation where terrorism is a new threat perceived to be more dangerous than war, security should come first. After all, we are the same nation that during the second World War interned not only the Japanese resident aliens but also the citizens.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who can give up essential liberty for to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

His words speak very true and there is no reason that U.S. citizens should have to give up any more “liberties” that they may have lost since Sept 11.

Immigrants coming to the United States often left places where they had none of the liberties they would get here. If they truly believe the price of being detained is too high for their entry into the United States, perhaps they should turn around and go back home.

We have been an open country since our inception, but space is running out and there may still be threats to our nation and our individual security. As times change, immigrants should expect conditions to change. Our rights belong only to our citizens.

Joey Maresca is a junior in electrical and computer engineering. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].