"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-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" This sonnet on the Statute of Liberty sums up one of the defining characteristics of America: a country of immigrants in the land of opportunity. It was this message of hope that early immigrations embraced when they entered America.
Today, the United States feels like the Divided States. With #MuslimBan trending after Trump's executive order, protests erupted at airports across the United States and a federal court issued an order temporarily halting the executive order. As a Muslim, I can't say I feel welcomed in the current political climate. As a permanent resident, despite living over 20 years in the United States and working for my country in public service, there is no guarantee that I wouldn't be detained if I were coming in from an international flight. But with a name like Osaama, I suppose I should assume that.
Since President Trump's election, there have been echoes throughout the country that his America's isn't the America we know. History is often the greatest reminder. If misogyny doesn't exist in America, why is it only since the 1920s that women have been allowed to vote, and why has the country not yet had a female head of state? If racism in America has died, why are socio-economic classes stratified by race, and why did our first African-American president only get elected recently? If America has always been a land of immigrants, then why have exclusionary immigration policies always existed?