Hapless Chinese Immigrants Can’t Escape the Party Line

A year ago, when friends asked why I took this job, I often told them I didn’t know of a place where the cultures of three continents come together as they do in Southern California. Imagine the column possibilities, I said.

I must admit, however, that I did not foresee 10 naked refugees from China wading ashore at a teenage beach party in Orange County. It was easily the most spectacular landing since professional goofball Dennis Rodman arrived by helicopter on a nearby beach.

If you missed the story last week, the men, in their 20s and 30s, apparently jumped ship at about 2 a.m. and desperately paddled, in chilly surf, toward new beginnings. Unfortunately, their 7,000-mile, one-month journey landed them in America at precisely the time Katie Gottron, 19, had stepped outside the party to call her boyfriend, Pat, in Arizona.

Oh, these quirks of timing, these unchartable crossroads that decide our fate. Ten Chinese nationals had just leaped from a modern-day slave ship, and four American college teens were about to foil their dash to freedom just as they reached the finish line. What were the chances?

Bridgett Saeman, 18, went out on the deck of her trailer at El Morro Beach Mobile Home Park to see Katie, who was still yakking with her boyfriend, and noticed something in the water. Maryann Siragusa, 18, recalls Katie running inside to alert her and Amelya D’Alba, 19.

“Katie came back in and says, ‘Hey, guys, there’s naked boys in the water,” said Maryann. “We go, ‘Oh,’ so we all ran outside, and that’s when we saw them.”

It is unclear whether boyfriend Pat, helpless in Arizona, overheard this chatter about the naked strangers. But for those of you who are parents, rest assured that John Siragusa would later ask his daughter Maryann why on earth she did such a thing.

“We told them thank God they’re safe. They shouldn’t have gone down there,” said Mr. Siragusa, who speaks for parents the world over.

But curiosity got the best of the girls. They say skinny-dipping isn’t uncommon on the beach where Bridgett has lived for years, hosting sleepovers with these same gal pals. Besides, they were in a party mood. The girls went to elementary school together in the Newport Beach area and were having a reunion after their first year of college.

So off they go down the beach, wearing their pajamas, according to Maryann. The men were still in varying states of undress as the girls approached, pulling makeshift rafts onto dry sand and removing dry clothes from sacks.

“Katie goes, ‘What are you guys doing? It’s cold and you’re naked,’” said Maryann. “They just looked at us and ignored us, totally nonchalant.”

In addition to a language barrier, they were probably speechless. Imagine living in a culture of unchecked repression, finally escaping by sea and landing nude in America, only to have college girls run out to greet you. They must have thought they were in a beer commercial.

This curious hands-across- the-Pacific moment ended with the men retreating to one of the trailer home decks to enjoy a cigarette while overlooking these freedom shores. Little did they know it would be their last puff, and that, having spent thousands of dollars on this chance, having survived high seas and international smugglers, if not pirates, they would not get past four Orange County beach girls.

“Once we saw they were not Americans, not from around here and not talking to us, we thought, ‘OK, something’s going on,’” said Bridgett. She went back home with her friends and rousted her father, who called police.

“At first we hesitated,” said Maryann. “But our country’s on alert.”

Within minutes, police and federal immigration officers scoured the exclusive coastline all the way to Laguna Beach. Within four hours, they’d caught all 10 of these guys, who now face deportation.

We barely stop one in 10 who enter the country illegally from Mexico, and in fact, we wink and look the other way because we like cheap labor. But with these 10 Chinese guys, the posse was out in force, and more efficient than ever.

I’m not sure why that is. But beginning with their pinpoint landing in the middle of El Morro Beach sorority night, these poor refugees just couldn’t seem to catch a break.

Even the girls who ratted them out were feeling sorry for them after hearing details of their risky journey to make a better life.

“I think all of us feel a little guilty,” said Maryann, who found herself contemplating the relative riches of this country, and their allure, as she never had.

“Had they been doing something like drug trafficking, or if they’d killed someone, I’d feel better,” said Bridgett. “They tried so hard to get over here, I feel horrible for them.”

It is a long way to travel for one cigarette on the beach, but maybe they’ll win political asylum. If not, others will follow, by land, by sea, legally, illegally, bringing great gifts and great burdens to Southern California.

Homeland of so few, destination of so many.

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Steve Lopez is away this week on a book tour. His column will resume June 5.