"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," reads the iconic welcome to the world's oppressed inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Emma Lazarus, the poet who penned those words, had herself helped Jewish refugees from the anti-Semitic pogroms of Eastern Europe who had fled to our shores in the late 19th century.

As America's 250th birthday approaches, it's not untimely to consider her message. It has not only inspired hope for uncountable people desperately in need of it, but helped shape America's proud, even lofty self-image as a refuge for the beaten down, where those threatened by persecution might yet have a chance for a decent life. After all, virtually all of us are descendants of those given the blessed opportunity to come to this country from elsewhere. Virtually all of our ancestors were "the Other," strangers forced to navigate poverty, and hatred, and ostracization and loneliness when they arrived.

That self-image has been the fuel for America's greatness. In his farewell address to the nation in January 1989, former President Ronald Reagan invoked the image of America as "the shining city on a hill." Reagan had a story in mind, that of an American sailor on the aircraft carrier Midway, patrolling the South China Sea in the 1980's. As Reagan told it, the sailor's crew "spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled,"'Hello American sailor. Hello, freedom man'."

Ronald Reagan would certainly be disgusted at President Donald Trump's derisive, belittling, bullying war on Emma Lazarus' and his own vision of America, a vision that has nurtured us since our founding. Last week featured another example.

In 1990, former President George H. W. Bush, a Republican, signed legislation creating the Temporary Protected Status program, designed to provide safe harbor here for refugees from countries deemed unsafe. Trump has set about dismantling the program, country by country.

When the administration terminated the program for the hundreds of thousands of Haitians here, litigation ensued. They argued that Haiti has long been unsafe, so the program could not be considered "temporary" as to it. The plaintiffs challenging the termination pointed out that nothing in Haiti had changed since its original designation; the administration itself has recently warned that no one should travel there due to kidnapping, terrorist activity, rampant crime and civil unrest.

A federal court sided with the plaintiffs, temporarily blocking the deportation of Haitian refugees until those challenging the government had had the opportunity to prove that racial discrimination was at least "a motivating factor in the decision to terminate the program for Haiti — which was all they were required to show to legally nullify the termination decision. The court noted statements by Trump himself that Haitians "probably have AIDS," were eating the pets of residents in American communities, came from a "s—-hole country" which was "filthy, dirty, disgusting" and were "poisoning" American blood.

The Republican-dominated U.S. Supreme Court reversed, ruling that the plaintiffs should not even be permitted to prove their case. There was nothing in Trump's language, they held, with any racial overtones, ruling that these statements were merely "heated." Justice Elena Kagan saw things differently, writing that Trump's language was "shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes."

Here's what's not disputable: Team Trump simply doesn't see America the same way Americans have traditionally seen it. "America's doors are closed, fully, to asylum seekers," crowed Trump advisor Steven Miller after the Supreme Court reversal. Conservative media host Megyn Kelly spoke for those who believe they are making America great again. "We don't want you," proclaimed Kelly to the Haitian community after the ruling. "We don't care if you're offended. Get out. Go home. Go back to your f—-ing country."

Not exactly "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Not exactly Reagan's "shining city on a hill." But on our 250th birthday, that is where, and who, we are.

Jeff Robbins' latest book, "Notes From the Brink: A Collection of Columns about Policy at Home and Abroad," is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play. Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment and a longtime columnist, he writes on politics, national security, human rights and the Middle East.

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