“Refugees Welcome” was trending on Twitter on Tuesday after a red banner bearing the words was hung from the Statue of Liberty’s observation deck, spread across the pedestal.
The sign measured 20 feet by 3 feet, according to WABC.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”#RefugeesWelcomepic.twitter.com/W42UtKA2qW
— Alt Lady Liberty (@AltStatLiberty) February 21, 2017
The National Park Service reportedly removed the banner after assessing that doing so would not harm the national monument. US Park Police have yet to identify suspects.
“There were four people involved in hanging it,” a message from the Alt Lady Liberty Twitter account to Curbed New York read. “We have no group, but are just private citizens who feel that the principles that make America great are under attack. We wanted to send a reminder about the America we believe in.”
The statue, a gift from France in 1886, came to symbolize open immigration for many after 1903, when a sonnet by Emma Lazarus was engraved at the pedestal.
The poem’s second half, containing its most famous lines, goes as follows:
“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-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
