Sculptor Luis Sanguino's "The Immigrants" celebrates the diversity of New York City and the struggle of immigrants in this heroic-sized bronze figural group. The sculpture depicts figures of various ethnic groups and eras, including an Eastern European Jew, a freed African slave, a priest, and a worker. STanding together, the members are connected through their pose. The rough surface of the bronze not only accentuates the extreme emotion, but generalizes the features allowing them to represent no individual in particular.
The piece was donated by Samuel Rudin (1896–1975), who commissioned the sculpture in the early 1970s, intending it to be installed near
Castle Clinton as a memorial to his parents, who, as it is noted on the plinth, emigrated to the United States in the late-19th century. Although sculpted in 1973, it was not placed in its initial home in front of the Castle until 1983. It has since been moved to the
northeast of the Castle. 