Yearning to be free

Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

Ellis Island in New York is the icon of immigration to the United States. A museum there tells the story of the more than 12 million people who landed on the island during its 62-year history as the country’s main immigration center.

Officials plan to expand the museum’s focus to reflect the full history of how people came to America. At a news conference Wednesday, officials detailed plans to tell the stories of those who never set foot on Ellis Island but became part of the great melting pot. They said new exhibits would include American Indians, African slaves and Mexicans who were engulfed by America’s expansion.

“It’s an important story to tell because Ellis Island is a symbol of inclusion, it’s a symbol of diversity and that’s what this country is,” said Stephen Briganti, president of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

He said the new exhibits will touch on illegal immigration because there have been “undocumented people ever since immigration began to be controlled.”

Briganti told USA Today that “there’s always been controversy ... about who was being let in, and that continues today.”

Given that the controversy continues to roil, the plans to expand the Ellis Island museum are welcome. It is important that as the government grapples with the issue of illegal immigration, Americans have a clear understanding of the nation’s heritage. People have come to America for generations, legally and illegally, in hopes of a better life.

Yet there are those in the immigration debate who would like to cut out millions of people from ever having a chance at the American dream. Perhaps they should visit Ellis Island and the nearby Statue of Liberty, where the words of a poet put it best:

Give me your tired, your poor

Your huddled masses yearning to be free.

Our nation of immigrants is blessed with a richly diverse population that has made America the great country that it is. We should never forget that.