Story of an "Illegal" Immigrant Worker

from Getting Together (circa 1972): Chinese-American Workers: Past & Present

This morning I received a phone call. The call was made from the Immigration Department in New York. What happened was that my friend, Chan, was picked up by Immigrations, and locked up on the l5th floor. Later on, I went to see him.

It was 12:30 in the afternoon, at the time when they were having lunch. I saw the people there waiting on a long line for their food to be dispensed from the kitchen. I could see clearly-there were about 200 people inside, including 6 Asians. One -of them was my friend, Chan. There were 8 tables in the cafeteria, facing the kitchen. I also saw that their food consisted of black coffee and bread.

Chan told me there were Puerto Ricans, Greeks, Mexicans, Argentinians, and also Danes inside. Some of them have been locked in there for more than a year because they didn't have bail money. Some of these people worked as janitors or kitchen helpers inside the penitentiary, making $2 a day. Just enough to keep them supplied with cigarettes.

From the looks on their faces, they seem to feel a lot of pain inside. I heard that sometimes they feel pain from the outside, too ... from being beaten. There were thirteen guards in the penitentiary. Very often, they made use of their clubs. There was a black guy who looked at me with a kind gaze, and made a motion with his hands indicating that he wanted a cigarette.

They went to bed at 9:00 in the evening. 200 of them all inside a big room. They slept in bunk beds. They got up at 6:00 in the morning. Chan told me the first morning he got up, he put his coat on the bed and went to wash up. When he got back the coat was gone. Later on, a Puerto Rican told him that a white guard had taken it and thrown it in the garbage can.

I talked with Chan for about 20 minutes, and then a white guard came over and asked me to leave. Then Chan gave him a dollar. He took it, and told us, "It's all right, go ahead a talk."

Chan had been a seaman from Taiwan. He had borrowed $7,000 Taiwan money to get a position on the Gin Shan Line from Taiwan. He was a helmsman. Four months ago, he came to New York. He came out with his friends to Chinatown. He tried to look for a job in a restaurant. Later on, he was referred by someone and started working in a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey. During the job interview, he was told that he would made $120 for a six-day week, working 10 hours a day. So after his ship left New York, he started to work there. The boss had him work 12 hours a day, and he reluctantly accepted it.

After two weeks' work, he asked the boss for his salary so that he could send it home to his family. The boss only paid him $85. He wondered about it, and asked the boss why it was that he only got $85 when he was supposed to get $120, according to their agreement at the time of the interview. This son-of-a-bitch answered him, "You don't have to take it."

The next day he left the place and starting working in another restaurant for the next 24 days. He had been working in four different restaurants during his four month stay. Every restaurant where he worked, he got about the same kind of treatment. Twelve hours a day is awfully painful, especially with the boss at every restaurant looking down on him.

Chan was picked up on the 23rd of November by the Immigration officials. Some of his friends were preparing to raise some money for him to get a lawyer and pay the bill. Yet Chan refused. What he thought was very simple: "The type of society in Chinatown, New York, and the Taiwan society are about the same. The type of Chinese boss in New York and bosses in Taiwan are the same bureaucrats, exploiting us workers. It will not make any difference if I go back to Taiwan, and my mother, my wife, and my kids will not have to worry about me."

We-are very worried about what kind of life Chan will lead in Taiwan.

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Story of an "Illegal" Immigrant Worker

Section 4: Chinese Youth

`Section 4: Chinese Youth`