It might strike a person as odd that one of America's richest men would decide to take a leading role in calling for a more tolerant, open attitude toward immigration. But when one learns the man is George Soros, perhaps this is not surprising. Soros, profiled earlier this month on the popular television newsmagazine 60 Minutes, has a reputation for being a tough businessman, but also one of the world's leading philanthropists. Until recently, he was best known for giving money to help promote open societies in Eastern Europe.

But recently Soros chose to tackle the issue of immigration. Soros knows first hand the importance of an open immigration policy. He is, after all, a Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust and knows that for many, the right to immigrate can be a matter of life and death.

Recently Soros created the Emma Lazarus Fund, an initiative of Soros' Open Society Institute. Emma Lazarus was the 19th Century Jewish-American poet whose famous words from her poem "The New Colossus" welcoming impoverished immigrants to American shores are on a plaque on the Statue of Liberty. The poem, beginning with the famous words "Give me your tired, your poor..." is one of the most famous in American literature and is now synonymous with America's welcoming historical attitude to immigrants.

According to Soros, the Fund has the following goals:

"First, in appropriate instances, it will pay the cost of applying for citizenship for legal immigrants who wish to become naturalized Americans; second, it will assist community and social service organizations that help legal immigrants by providing English-language instruction and other services that help them qualify for citizenship; finally, the Fund will assist organizations conducting efforts, both in the courts and through public education campaigns, on the issues of naturalization and immigration."

Soros does not intend the Fund to promote open borders. Rather, he says the issue is one of justice - equal treatment and the rule of law, regardless of immigration status.

The Emma Lazarus Fund has already made dozens of grants more than $43 million of the Fund's $50 million base. A detailed description of the groups and the funding amounts is on the Fund's web site at http://www.soros.org/emma/. The projects have been diverse, but the common theme is that the Soros funding will provide a major boost relieving the financial pressures for many struggling organizations.