Even though the Golden Venture occurred two years before I was born, the documentary was actually the first that I ever heard of it, which was surprising to me. I thought I knew of all of the large events that happened in New York. But an invasion of 300 undocumented Chinese immigrants on the shore of Long Island? That had skipped my knowledge somehow. While watching the documentary, I realized that my dad had come to New York in 1990 and was probably living somewhere in Queens while the Golden Venture took place. Excited, I asked him about it the first chance I got, hoping he’d have some cool stories to tell, but to my surprise, he knew nothing about it other than it “rang a bell”. If something like that occurred today, it would have spread like wildfire! Since my dad was still a new immigrant, he said he didn’t know a lot of people and didn’t understand a lot of English, so he was naturally out of the loop with things going on around him. As we continued talking about his experiences as an immigrant, he mentioned all the racism and discrimination he faced and it reminded me of the Chinese immigrants from the Golden Venture and how much they had to work in order to get to a place where they were comfortable, if not satisfied.

The documentary Golden Venture embodied the largely controversial topic of illegal immigration. With China’s flourishing economy today, it is almost hard to believe that there was a time when Chinese were willing to risk their lives to leave China and come to America and even then under the dire conditions of being packed into a ship carrying 300 people. What really got to me was the fact that people were assigned “body spaces” which I thought automatically dehumanized them. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that all those people came to America with the knowledge and hope that the government would follow through with their catch-and-release policy. However, because of the influx of illegal immigration, the president decided to punish these immigrants and set an example for all future immigrants who plan on staying undocumented. I agree with the fact that illegal immigration should have consequences, but I believe it was too harsh to implement the change in policy immediately on people who were trying to survive and build a better life for themselves on free  soil.