The Poem on the Statue of Liberty Was 'Added Later' But There's More to That Story

The history of the Statue of Liberty became the focus of a back-and-forth between Stephen Miller, an aide to President Donald Trump, and CNN's Jim Acosta during the White House Press Briefing on Wednesday.

The broadcast journalist had argued that the President's support of a bill that would place new limits on legal immigration did not jibe with the spirit embodied by the monument, as expressed by the Emma Lazarus poem that has become synonymous with Lady Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor," it famously declares, "Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

"The poem that you're referring to was added later," Miller replied. "It's not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty."

The poem was engraved onto a plaque placed on the pedestal in 1903 — nearly two decades after the statue was unveiled — and that the monument wasn't always associated with immigration.