“Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …” True to those borrowed eloquent words of 19th Century poet Emma Lazarus, American benevolence has comforted the wretched from nearly every corner of the world with the promise of unequivocal freedoms no other country on the face of the earth desired to give its citizens.

For centuries, ocean liners - nearly busting out their rivets with live cargo of immigrants - navigated toward New York’s Ellis Island. A colossal gift from the French slowly emerged from the dense fog to welcome Europe’s tired and poor. One look at that tall iron Mother of Exiles standing in the dark waters, and tears of joy would stream down the slopes of cheerful yet relieved faces of men, women, and children.

The image was their guarantee that they made it to America. It was cause for celebration. They sang in their native tongues, danced their custom dances, and praised their God with watery eyes gazing up at the heavens; thankful for the angelic safe voyage through stormy seas to the Promised Land. Immigrants poured onto American soil by way of the sea and Ellis Island like locust on a mission to devour the promised liberties they had only dreamed, read or heard about.

If the streets of America was indeed paved in gold, they wanted to see it for themselves. They possessed the driven desire to live the life that evaded them in the Old Country; a life that seemed far- fetched; a depressing life with no future - of hunger, religious intolerance, and political indifference and silence. America said “Come”, and like obedient children, they came.

Today, America’s long arms are folded up against her breasts in a stubborn will. It is now a strong phenomenal position of apprehension brought on by fear of the unknown. It is not like early America which welcomed the desperate diaspora of nations flocking toward New York’s Ellis Island in masses.

Back then, there was no security measures in place to scan or interrogate foreigners. There were no boisterous threats of terrorism like there are today. No one had the warped idea to blow up, maim, and massacre thousands of people with bombs planted in their shoes or in aerosol cans simply because they hate Americans; and no one had vocally declared they hated Americans, otherwise they would have been thrown overboard because the majority on that ship aching for American freedoms ruled! It was truly the Land of the free.

It was a different time. But that different time has evolved into the present resentment of America meddling into foreign affairs or having too much of a good thing such as freedoms to worship, speak, assemble, live and vote as one so chooses.

It is a sordid kind of jealousy that rivals Cain who slew his brother Abel; a jealousy for control and absolute power over the weak and defenseless. It is that same jealousy so often mistaken for righteous indignation that spurs ungodly men and women to strap on bombs in the name of their God to kill others unlike themselves.

This is the fear Americans wrestle with; it is an inevitable war against their enemies that they are trying to avoid, and if keeping them out by tightening up the borders and heightening security at all airports and highways, then by freedom they will.

This crippling fear has no exclusions. It is believed that anyone from any place outside of the United States and its territories are considered potential threats. The focus is on anyone from the Middle East or anyone of Muslim faith. The general bias of such ones is that those invited to come to America are coming with the abstract thought of killing Americans and disintegrating their freedoms, as seen on their country’s broadcast of American flags burning and simulcasted executions of American hostages.

However, how often are there home-grown terrorists such as Oklahoma’s Timothy McVie and New York’s Brooklyn-born al Qaeda member, Jose Padilla, A.K.A Abdullah al Muhajir, et. al? Could there be disillusioned Americans fostering the idea of terror right under their very noses, such as the next door neighbor with the big smile or the mailman who faithfully brings your mail? It could be anyone.

Yet, America continues to roll out the carpet to welcome outsiders at the airports who come under the guise of seeking political or religious asylum or diplomatic immunity. As many Americans try not to assume that every Muslim with a beard is a terrorist, the cautionary reactions given them has become the norm since 9/11.

Such an unsettling presence of immigrants who speak softly or ramble on in rapid tongue fire, has provoked many Americans to assume vigilante positions and attacked anyone who resembled Middle Eastern people; but such actions only caused more problems.

Arguments over immigration - particularly California’s Propositions 187 and 227 and the now 2008 President hopefuls’ Achilles heel - has turned the tide of the majority of Americans to plead for Congress to halt any further influx of foreigners from stepping feet into the United States, regardless of what crisis the denizens are subjected to.

From the Mexican border to Miami’s shores, Americans continue to frown at the idea of being hospitable because of the fear that has gripped the nation. Prior to 9/11, immigrants came to America on their own by land, if not by sea. Border control was a hostile debate as thousands of Mexicans fleeing to the Land of Opportunity were caught meandering in dessert-like conditions, dying from dehydration and being mistreated and beaten by border control agents; if they were escaping one hell, they found themselves involved in another - American style; and thousands are sent back to their country to suffer more debilitating poverty.

Cuban refugees go through great, almost ingenious methods to escape the dictatorship of Fidel Castro; from braving the waters on an inflated bicycle inner tube to a 1957 Chevy converted into a boat. Thousands die in the efforts, a desperate risk for the dream of living the American dream. Haitians flee in overcrowded vessels only to be turned back by the U.S. Coast Guard where many drown in the blackness of night en route to their repressive Haiti, while the Chinese refugees are caught in ships that run aground.

This writer cannot justify the biases of others - and will not attempt to. But she has come to discern the real fears inhibiting most Americans from embracing the tidal wave of Hispanic immigrants who assume jobs other groups will not humble themselves to do. She has seen with her own eyes how some Americans cringe at the sight of Mexican laborers looking for work while others sincerely desire to help them get on their feet.

The language barrier is also a fear, not knowing how to communicate with them, and many Americans feel that they are wasting their tax dollars assisting impoverished immigrants via social service programs. Whatever their reasons are, the new immigrants coming to America are unfairly singled out and mistreated just as the early European immigrants were.

Each group was different; bringing along with them their unique customs; and because of their cultural differences, Americans are able to savor the various delicacies of cuisines once unknown to them. Pasta dishes, corned beef and cabbage and the finest Ale, and shish kabob and Moussaka. Rice and beans and plantains. The food list goes on and on. Americans are introduced to the other side of the world as the world comes to America. Can any country get any better than that?

It was African Americans who built the White House, and Irish and Italian immigrants built the Brooklyn Bridge. The work would have been done one way or another; but it was done best by these groups. And it is this recognition of what good each ethnic group has to offer that should be the central focus.

Although America’s present fear is warranted given the recent tide of events - the Iraq War, for instance - America’s fear of immigration should be addressed, evaluated, and remedied with the conscientious efforts of governmental intelligence. There should not be a false sense of security; but at the same time, there should not be an over-reaction of the position of immigrants seeking to live the American dream as did our forefathers.

If immigration policies need to be revamped, then the powers that be should be in a neutral position to weigh the pros and the cons of the issue; and based on the results, they should be able to render appropriate action that would benefit everyone. Of course, not everyone can be pleased. There will always be those who will continue to keep the flames of controversy blazing till kingdom come; exaggerating things, having a “Citizen Kane” complex, scaring every patriotic American with sensational stories about immigrant invasions; or coaxing others to join them on an immigrant “Joseph McCarthy” witch hunt. Fear has the power to paralyze, but it also has the power to make fools out of storytellers.

Poet Emma Lazarus herself was a passenger aboard one of those many ships that headed for America when she caught sight of the Statue of Liberty; and that was when she penned the now infamous words enshrined on the base of the Statue of Liberty today.

Generations have lived in this land of the free and the home of the brave; and all born and bred here have enjoyed those words of freedom. And freedom has no sense of fear; but to preserve this fearless freedom, everyone must face their fears. They must face the issue of immigration and deal with it humanely; just as humanely as Lady Liberty had dealt with previous descendants.