You might be different You might be strange Probably come From some other place You dress pretty funny An' what an odd name Why don't you go back From wherever you came Give me your tired Give me your poor The wretched refuse Of your teeming shore Send these, the homeless To our golden door But does the mother of exiles Shine anymore? They came from the north The south, east and west We welcomed them sometimes And near-passed the test But those differences That we might celebrate Seemed to challenge our power And made us irate It seemed competition To who we'd become It was never an issue ‘Cause we always won The broken, the orphans Returning vets Minority people And the tribes that are left The foreigner, addict And those we don't like They boil up our fears Challenged our way of life To share became odious Taxing us raw Enough is enough We ain't open no more Does the mother of exiles Matter anymore?