The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2026 Blog #24
July 13, 2026
The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Our family traveled to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island this weekend. It was a bit of a disappointment. There are a limited number of tickets given to enter the statue and they were sold out before we arrived at the ferry terminal. We got to see Ellis Island, and go to Liberty Island, but not enter into the statue and climb to her crown. I, and some of my Grandsons were very disappointed that we could not climb into the statue instead settling on seeing it from the outside.
Seeing the statue from the ferry in the harbor is truly an awe-inspiring sight. This isn’t my first trip to the statue, and hopefully won’t be my last, but I still stand enraptured when I am viewing her. I can only imagine what immigrants in the past have felt when their boats arrived in the harbor and they saw the sight of the statue looming over them. How optimistic they must have been when they arrived in America and were greeted by that sight. There is a great scene in the movie “Godfather Part II” when young Vito Corleone stands on the boat and simply stares up at the statue. He is running from a Sicilian Vendetta but his future in the new world is uncertain. What will become of him?
Of course, those arriving on these boats were taken to Ellis Island for processing. Those who were ill were quarantined. Those mentally disabled and criminals were sent back to the port from which they came. Extensive physical, psychological, and mental tests were given. Only those who would be workers who contributed to our economy would be allowed to stay.
Ellis Island functioned for over sixty years sorting potentially productive immigrants from those who, it was perceived, would not contribute toward our society. Such people were sent by to the origination point of their ship. Millions of people were accepted into this country, but many were turned away.
This reminds me that the debate that we are having about immigration is not something that we are facing for the first time. Immigration discussions and debates have been happening since the very first days of our nation. Even during the time of the great immigration and Ellis Island, there was a debate as to what criteria should be used to accept immigrants to our nation. There was a flexibility to this measurement, but it usually came down to whether or not an immigrant would be a working member of society but not be a criminal.
Immigration has become a major topic most recently as Ice agents now do immigration sweeps on a scale that I have never seen in my lifetime. It seems to me that there is a different criterion than we upheld in the Ellis Island era. Now, people who are working and have committed no criminal acts are being rounded up and being held without trial. It has been argued that just being in this country without documentation is a crime. I agree, it is. Is such an infraction a great enough crime to incarcerate a person who is productively working? It takes years to work through our immigration process. It would behoove us to work on streamline this process. Yes, we do want to arrest violent criminals but is it productive to pursue people who work and obey our laws? Soon businesses who depend on immigrant labor will be shutting down for lack of workers.
Yes, our boarders must be secured. Yes, we must keep violent criminals out. My hunch is that we can do this more economically with easier procedures for residency and citizenship and fewer paramilitary forces combing our nation making mass arrests of working people simply attempting to live the American dream as promised by the Statue of Liberty.
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