“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!”

These are the words inside the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, part of a poem by Emma Lazarus. Since its dedication in 1886, the Statue of Liberty has become a beacon of freedom and a welcome from the United States to immigrants coming from abroad.

But I don’t believe these words ring true any longer. As I hear news surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the safety of Dreamers, individuals who came to the United States as minors now protected by DACA, I question whether America is still the safe haven to immigrants it was meant to be. America must take steps to keep the promise that the country was built on. All immigrants deserve a chance to naturalize into the country, whether that chance is a new policy or a reform in the process to gain citizenship.

My parents came to the United States as immigrants more than 30 years ago to secure a good education for the family they would build together and to live the “American Dream” — a dream where everyone is welcome in America, a dream where anyone can work hard and succeed.

My father knew education was crucial to succeed and get a good job. He lived through the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China, when many schools were not only shut down but weren’t teaching basic math and science — instead, they were “brainwashing” children about communism. Because of this, my father was already years behind everyone else, and he knew he didn’t want the same experience for his children.

From television, movies and the talk that went around, my parents saw America as a place full of opportunities. Compared to Hong Kong, where both my parents lived before they were married, America was teeming with business, with job opportunities and a place that was “better.” Everyone wanted a better life, and to them, America would be it.

From the mome nt my father stepped off the plane at O’Hare, he knew America really was better. He told me that day was clear, barely any clouds, simply a bright blue sky with open air and none of the humidity and stuffiness back in Hong Kong. He found jobs wherever he could, working first as a bartender, then a waiter and eventually moving into the kitchen.

Today my parents have their own business, two children and a home, none of which would have been possible if not for America.

The American Dream is the reason why I’m here today. It’s the reason I can write this and share my story as well as my parents’. It’s the reason why I am at one of the best institutions and am lucky enough to have opportunities my parents couldn’t have even imagined when they were my age. It’s the reason I don’t consider a boiled egg a birthday gift like my father did when he was a child. It’s the reason I still believe in the American Dream and that immigrants, illegal or not, should be given the chance to naturalize into this free country.

People are willing to risk their lives traveling here to find safety and start anew. Why deny them the opportunity to contribute? Why not allow them to improve and add to the multitude of cultures, ideas and the economy.

To deny immigrants a home is to deny the promise of America.