Their exchange occurred at a White House briefing to detail Mr. Trumps support for changes in the way immigrants are admitted to the United States, giving advantages to English-speaking applicants with high-paying job offers. The measure could result in a 50 percent reduction in legal immigration in its 10th year.

Rodney Goodall, 62, a member of the Australian Army Reserve, from Queensland, Australia, was visiting the statue with his family. He had watched a clip of Mr. Acosta and Mr. Millers argument at one point Mr. Acosta asked, Are we just going to bring in people from Great Britain and Australia? but had never read Lazaruss poem before.

Now, reading it, Mr. Goodall said the poem and the statue were one and the same.

Dennis Mulligan, who has been a ranger for 20 years with the National Park Service, which operates the statue, said The New Colossus plaque had been in several locations. According to Mr. Mulligan, there are no photographs of its original location as part of the statues pedestal, but it is believed to have been in one of the balcony areas of the colonnade.

Since 1986, the plaque has been part of a display in the museum within the pedestal. Mr. Mulligan said he urged visitors to interpret Lazaruss poetry and the statues significance as they wished.

I would say ultimately the statue is the story of people, he said, and there are many things that have attached itself to what she represents.

As for Lazaruss sonnet, he said: Its a piece of poetry. Its a work of art. They see what they want to see. Thats what art is.

Kara Kiratikosolrak first visited Liberty Island as a 2-year-old traveling from her native Thailand. In an old photograph, she said, she is holding her fathers hand as he clutches her baby sister.

Kara, now 14 and a new immigrant to the United States, had returned to the statue with her sister and an aunt, on vacation from her new home in Solon, Ohio.

She said she had heard people in her town talking about Mr. Trumps immigration policy, but didnt know much about it herself. I just know Im going to school here and I love it, she said.

As for Lazaruss poem, she said, This is my first time reading this.

Luz Villegas, 59, was leaning against a guardrail in Battery Park on Thursday, looking out at New York Harbor and Liberty Island. Ms. Villegas, an immigrant from Venezuela, said that when she moved to New York City in 1993, her first stop was the statue. She said she had returned frequently, visiting the previous Saturday, in fact.

Though Ms. Villegas had not heard about the exchange between Mr. Miller and Mr. Acosta, she said Lazaruss poem was her favorite part of visiting Liberty Island. If visitors see the statue without it, she said, we miss something important.

She suggested reading the poem before going up to the crown, and again when one gets back down. I wish people really took the time to digest what they read, she said.

A version of this article appears in print on August 5, 2017, on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: At Statue of Liberty, Words That Resonate Even if They Are Unfamiliar.

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At Statue of Liberty, Words That Resonate Even if They're Unfamiliar - New York Times