Help me get two young fugitives into the U.S. somehow

lenore_x

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
979
Reaction score
116
Location
Seattle
Website
laurenmhunter.com
Oh god, I'm crazy for trying to write this. Um, so I have a young Irishman and a young South Korean woman, both in their late teens, both legally minors in their countries of citizenship. It's the late 70s or early 80s, not quite sure yet. Irishman came to SK on vacation with the ulterior motive of running away with this Korean chick, his girlfriend. She steals a large quantity of money from her father, and off they go!

Now, I need them to get to America eventually. It doesn't have to be right away; it can take a decade, even. Assuming their families aren't making much of an effort to find them, what routes to residency would be available to them? Can they do it as minors, or do they need to hide out somewhere for a few years? Are there "bridge" type countries that would be easier for them to move to while they put that pesky fugitive status behind them?

Come on, I know this has been done. :D I don't need lots of detail since this is all basically backstory.
 

Karen Junker

Live a little. Write a lot.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
2,719
Reaction score
551
Location
Bellevue, WA
Website
www.CascadeWriters.com
Not encouraging you to anything illegal, but when I worked for a government agency a few years back, I saw plenty of fake IDs and social security cards. What they seemed to do was use the name of a child who had died near birth but was born around the same time as them. It was easy for those who were willing to break the law to steal identity in the 70s and 80s, but I don't know about now.

ETA: If they arrived on a private boat, i.e. worked their way on a sailboat or something?
 
Last edited:

whacko

Keeping up with the class
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 20, 2010
Messages
1,209
Reaction score
177
Location
Glasgow
Or Canada. Like my uncle.:D
 

waylander

Who's going for a beer?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 24, 2005
Messages
8,325
Reaction score
1,574
Age
65
Location
London, UK
Lots of Irish went to the US in the 70s and 80s. They flew in as tourists and initially stayed with relatives who fixed them up with no questions asked jobs - barwork, waitressing, construction - many are still there having found ways to get legitimised.

If one of your characters is Irish, he is related to half of Boston and New York
 

BySharonNelson

(Insert something whitty here)
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 21, 2011
Messages
256
Reaction score
27
Location
Oregon
Website
www.bysharonnelson.blogspot.com
Yep I agree, you could easily charter a small plane or even a boat and come from either Mexico or Canada. Fake Id is still very common today and isn't really even that difficult to obtain. It is still done exactly as Karen said.
 

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 13, 2008
Messages
9,239
Reaction score
2,316
Location
Oregon, USA
I think stowing way on a boat to get off the Korean peninsula, then working on various ships across the Pacific to Canada is extremely believable.

I lived forty miles south of Alberta, Canada, in the '80s and '90s, and going back and forth across the border was always a cinch. I once lost my ID in Canada and was allowed back into Montana after I let U.S. Border Patrol officers search my vehicle.
 

envision

novice novelist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 16, 2010
Messages
175
Reaction score
9
Location
Appalachia
Yeah, back in the 70s and 80s it wasn't as hard to sneak to and from the U.S. People could walk through the Pacific Northwest Trail and do it. I think it was called Heart's Pass possibly? Of course, they were just traveling to and from Canada, not living there illegally. Of course, right now it would probably be a lot harder. LOL, I think the writing and acting communities are some of the only communities in which you can ask questions such as "How can I sneak two fugitives into the U.S." or "Does chloroform cause someone to pass out" without looking strange.
 
Last edited:

lenore_x

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
979
Reaction score
116
Location
Seattle
Website
laurenmhunter.com
Wow, you guys are awesome! Thank you so much everyone! :D

And yeah, dude, my research trail makes me look like a serial killer sometimes. What's the best poison for mimicking a natural death? How hard to I have to hit someone to break their skull? And so on... ;)
 

MeretSeger

The Alydar of Writers
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
387
Reaction score
44
Location
sunny*snork*California
I often wonder whether we should document our research just in case someone does meet a mysterious end that we know.

Of course, we know if a famous lion passes away from brick ingestion...