Smuggling Rings and Corrupt Officials

The discovery in 1892 of a transnational smuggling ring in the Mexican

border area revealed the level of corruption of both U.S. and Mexican officials, and the cruelty Chinese suffered at the hands of smugglers. The smuggling operation took large groups of Chinese who disembarked in Ensenada
or Guaymas and moved them clandestinely to the outskirts of Tijuana or
Nogales. Any migrants who tried to escape were handcuffed or beaten. According to an article in the San Diego Union, U.S. marshal Thomas Smallcomb went into Mexico to ferry the Chinese across. The article suggested
that U.S. officials made money for every Chinese arrested, while Mexican
officials were paid to bring the Chinese across to the United States. Apparently both sides were making a profit delivering and arresting the Chinese in
this operation. The newspaper article asserted that U.S. officers "entered the
foreign territory of Mexico, brought the Chinamen across the line, lodged
them in jail, and heralded the news that their watchfulness and activity had
circumvented the heathen Chinee in his attempt to sneak into the United
174 / THE PRODUCT I ON OF I LLEGA L ALIENS, 1882-1900

States."'8 The plot was eventually discovered only because one of the smugglers, who had not been paid for two shipments, became an informant to
U.S. authorities.'9
Denials by the U.S. marshals accused of smuggling Chinese filled the
pages of the San Diego Union in the following days.80 After further investigation, the paper discovered a more elaborate smuggling plot involving
U.S. marshals Goodrich and Marsh as well as officials on the Mexican side,
including judges Ildefonso Fuentes and Donaciano Cruz and a policeman.
Joaquin Fuentes, the policeman, was a brother of the judge. The U.S. officials made money by arresting the Chinese, while the Mexicans would earn
money by helping them cross the border. The Chinese did not know that two
groups were working together. The money-making scheme fell apart when a
group of Chinese who had been employed in a Mexican mine were captured,
robbed, and locked up in Inocencio Pollorena's house in Tijuana. After unsuccessfully trying to take possession of the Chinese migrants, Fuentes enlisted Governor Luis Torres of Baja California to force Pollorena to release
them to him. Once Fuentes had control of the migrants, he stole their money
and blankets and sold them to marshals Goodrich and Marsh, who arrested
them for illegal entry into the United States.81 The story suggests the extent to
which Chinese were subject to exploitation from all kinds of criminals, from
Mexican judges and police to U.S. marshals and others. The fact that Governor Torres helped Fuentes gain control of the Chinese indicates how high up
the corru tion ran. The sa a of the five Chinese was not over et.

When the Mexican consul tried to visit the Chinese in jail in San Diego, he
found that they had been moved to Los Angeles. The commissioner in Los
Angeles deported them to China before the consul could meet with them.
Goodrich and Marsh must have believed that the story would end once the
Chinese were thousands of miles across the Pacific. However, the Mexican
consul in San Diego and the Spanish minister in China took up their cause
and arranged for affidavits from the Chinese to be sent to Porfirio Dfaz in
Mexico City. Dfaz ordered Fuentes arrested and began an investigation. The
investigation found that Fuentes received twenty dollars from each Chinese
and fifty dollars from the U.S. authorities for delivering the Chinese. The Los
Angeles Times wrote, "In addition to the punishment he will deserve for his
dealings with the Chinese, [Fuentes) stands a very good chance of being shot
for murder and robbery." 82 Ildefonso Fuentes, who was originally from Los
Angeles and presumably therefore a U.S. citizen, was held in prison in Ensenada while his case made its way through the Mexican courts. Finally, in
1897, Fuentes was found guilty of kidnapping the Chinese and sentenced to

five years in prison, fined soo Mexican pesos, and banned from ever holding a government post again.83 Meanwhile, a grand jury in the United States
exonerated Marshal Marsh.84 The Fuentes case shows that although immigration policy was written in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City, local officials could enforce the rules to the extent they thought necessary or profitable. Estelle Lau similarly argues, in her book Paper Families, that although
the federal government crafted immigration policy, it was implemented at
the local level by officials who were sometimes sensitive to pressure from
civil society and Chinese migrants.8 5 Ultimately, all sides in this case used
the Chinese for their own profit. Nevertheless, it was ultimately the law that
rendered the Chinese as "illegals" and thereby made them susceptible to exploitation. For the five Chinese who were robbed, extorted, kidnapped, and
passed along like cattle, North America was not the Gold Mountain of which
they had dreamed.