The Unintended Migrant: An International Diplomatic Headache
When a destitute man seeking work was deported from Washington back to British Columbia, he sparked a minor diplomatic crisis that tested the porous borders of the Pacific Northwest.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Before United States Commissioner C. D. Emery, a man named Ah Sing appeared, charged with violation of the Restricted Act. When an order of deportation was issued, the Commissioner asked where he had been before reaching Whatcom (now Bellingham). He replied, 'Me work long time Ladeer's Landing, Fraser River.' Mr. Boardman, representing the government, asked, 'Did you not come from Victoria?' 'Oh, no, me no,' replied Ah Sing, 'up by an island.' Marshal Hamilton stated that if the man admitted coming from Ladner's Landing, B.C., he should be arrested. Before Boardman could return to the scene, the good people of the town raised a subscription of $50 and sent the poor, starving creature to this city. On his arrival, the Marshal arrested him. Now that he has been bounced from the town to the town, he will likely be taken to a place he has been before. If sent to Victoria, he would not be received at all without the payment of $50. Marshal Hamilton says there is plenty of work on the island for Ah Sing, but the Chinese government may object to their subjects being placed in prison and made to work without having committed a felony. The only sentence hanging over the Chinaman’s head is that passed by the Commissioner, that he be returned to the country from whence he came. This little matter may lead to an interesting international muddle between the governments of the United States, British Columbia, and China.
“This little matter may lead to an interesting international muddle between the governments of the United States, British Columbia, and China.”
This 1887 report highlights the intense precarity and legal instability faced by Chinese laborers under the discriminatory 'Restricted Act.' The 'muddle' over Ah Sing’s movement between U.S. and Canadian borders mirrors modern debates on regional border control and the dehumanizing bureaucracy that migrants continue to face in the Pacific Northwest.
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