Yesterday, while touring "Alligator Alcatraz", the President told reporters that “bad criminals” have migrated to the U.S., “but we also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time... They're not new to our country. They're old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too. You want to know the truth? So maybe that’ll be the next job that we'll work on together.”
The "Big Beautiful Bill" provides $45 billion for detention facilities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an increase of 265% in ICE’s annual detention budget. It provides $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement, a threefold increase in ICE’s annual budget.
Yesterday the Education Department announced it is withholding $6.8 billion in funding for K–12 schools that, by law, was supposed to be disbursed starting July 1.
In 1831 Samuel Francis Smith wrote the words to My Country 'Tis of Thee while a student at Andover Theological Seminary. The final verse:
Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our king.
In 1903 Emma Lazarus' poem, "The New Colossus" was mounted inside the Statue of Liberty's pedestal.
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "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!"
Happy July Fourth, everyone! May the holy light of promise and welcome continue to shine in our nation, and in the world. Let freedom ring!
