Catch of the Day

Lights flashing, the U.S. Army patrol car was parked at an angle outside the base parachute shop. Two young MPs were huddled by the car radio. It was raining, and they wore ponchos over their camouflage uniforms. They also wore plastic gloves. A few feet away, a Chinese man dressed in a thin leather jacket, knock-off Levis and soggy sneakers stood motionless as rain ran down his face. He kept his eyes on the MPs and they kept their eyes on him.

“You seen any more guys like this around?” one of the soldiers asked a passerby.

No. Where did you find him?

“He just walked right up to us.”

This was Monday afternoon. About 15 hours earlier, shortly after midnight, the freighter Pai Chang had slipped into San Francisco Bay and maneuvered alongside an abandoned Coast Guard dock. There, a couple hundred or so Chinese immigrants were unloaded. Several were squeezed into a single car. The car was stopped as it headed through the Presidio, an Army fort that runs to the water’s edge. Checks were made, conclusions were drawn and reinforcements were summoned to the drop point. The chase was on. Federal agents and police officers pursued illegal immigrants across the hills and gullies of the wooded base. They chased them through the base golf course and into the Marina District. Most were caught within hours, but this one apparently had managed to find a good hiding place not far from the dock. A fresh cut ran alongside one cheek. His clothes were soiled.

One of the MPs held a neatly folded document in his hand.

“He gave us these papers,” he said. “But it’s all in Chinese.”

Did he tell you anything?

“Nothing,” the MP said. “He claims he can’t hear.”

The other MP walked behind the man. In a slow, stealthy motion, he brought his hand to within a few inches of the man’s right ear and snapped his fingers. The man flinched. The MP smiled, revealing a set of braces.

They were young, these soldiers, and they seemed excited to have found a role in what was the biggest running news story of the day in San Francisco, the latest novelty in the long, heated and complex debate over immigration. It is an issue that defies resolution in this country, and especially in this state. One side thunders about taxpayer burdens and the sanctity of borders. The other counters with a nation of immigrants and the realities of a global economy. Every year seems to beings a new flash point, a new story line, and this year is shaping up as the year of the Chinese immigrant. This was the third such shipload to be apprehended in a month, and the INS insists it’s only the tip of the iceberg, a fragment of a $3-billion industry built on what the speech writers call the American Dream.

Now another patrol car pulled up. Sgt. Jennifer Schoefield hopped out. “You get any?” the MPs asked the 23-year-old sergeant. “Seven,” she said. They were impressed. “This is our first one,” one said, adding, “but we just came on shift.” She told her stories. Five were caught on the golf course, one at the beach, another crouched beside a World War II monument. “They just squatted right in front of me and let me take them in,” she said. They were wet and miserable and with pats of their stomachs indicated they had not eaten for days.

Throughout the conversation, the Chinese man said nothing. Sometimes it looked like he was trying to smile. Sometimes it looked more like he was about to cry. He no doubt had quite a story of his own to tell, but there was no way to tell it. If what they were saying on the radio was right, this man in the thin leather coat had gone $30,000 into debt and endured a two-month voyage under slave ship conditions--all on the vague promise of back-shop work in some distant urban Chinatown--only to wind up in the clutches of these two fresh-faced MPs.

“He doesn’t know what is going on,” one said. “He’s so confused.”

It was raining harder now. One of the MPs was on the radio, describing the documents to a supervisor. The Chinese man swiveled his head, sneaking a peek at America. To the west loomed the Golden Gate Bridge. To the east rose San Francisco and its magical skyline. His first stop probably would be a detention camp near Bakersfield.

Schoefield looked him over. “It’s easy to get calloused,” she said. “You know, another lousy immigrant taking our jobs. But you feel sorry for them at the same time. This is supposed to be the land of opportunity and all that.” In a nutshell, the dilemma.

The radio crackled. “They said bring him in,” one of the MPs announced. They frisked the Chinese man, cuffed him and walked him to the car. He took a last look toward the city and then allowed himself to be lowered inside. The MPs took off their plastic gloves and drove away.