The Forced Deportation of Mrs. Lee Fook Bow
Customs officials seized the steamer Umatilla to enforce a federal court order, ultimately compelling the shipping company to return a Chinese woman to China under the restrictive immigration laws of 1892.
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.
The steamship Umatilla was seized at Port Townsend by Collector Saunders after the company refused to transport a Chinese woman, referred to as Mrs. Lee Fook Bow (or Chummie Yunn), back to China. The woman had been declared an unlawful arrival under the Geary Act of 1892, with authorities alleging she was brought to the country for 'immoral purposes.' While steamship officials initially claimed she had been taken ashore by customs officers without their consent, federal courts sided with the collector, ordering her deported. Facing significant financial losses from a detained ship and perishable cargo, the Pacific Coast Steamship Company eventually complied with the order, allowing the Umatilla to depart for San Francisco with the woman on board to be sent to China.
“We had to give in to the collector's arbitrary demands.”
This case underscores the era of state-sanctioned exclusion, where the federal government and local officials utilized the shipping industry to enforce the racist Chinese Exclusion Acts of the late 19th century.
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