Sister Ping is on the radar of the authorities going right back to the 1980s she had these smaller operations that would bring people over the Niagara river and to upstate New York from Canada. There was a terrible incident in which there was a raft with a series of her passengers that went over the the rapids of the Niagara river and the passengers died so even at that point the US immigration authorities started investigating sister Ping. Only really with the golden venture that she she ends up having to go on the run and there's this huge international man hunt for her it’s sort of that thing of uh where some people see chaos she sees opportunity you know?
Investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe joins us on the podcast to tell the story of an unlikely criminal mastermind, Sister Ping - a middle-aged, hardworking woman who is highly respected among her community. Originally from Fujian province, China, for years she runs an incredibly lucrative people smuggling business from New York's Chinatown until she comes into trouble with violent gangsters and then later the FBI. In conversation with our host Poppy Damon, they discuss immigration, the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and the questions of who gets to stay. They also speak about Patrick's involvement in the Oscar-nominated documentary starring Nan Goldin and directed by Laura Poitras, All The Beauty And The Bloodshed.
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