A 1994 Song About the Interrogation of an Illegal Immigrant Fisherman Sadly Gains Fresh Attention

Richard Shindell (left) performing at the Dogwood bar in Beacon, N.Y. in 2015 with fiddler Sara Milonovich, guitarist Marc Shulman and Joe Bonadio on percussion. (A. Revkin photo)

It’s great to see the superb songwriter and singer

Richard Shindell

here on Substack. In the post below he notes a bit of resurgent interest in his 30-plus-year-old song “Fishing” - about an INS agent (in the pre-ICE days) trying to coerce an immigrant fisherman into giving up the names of other illegals.

Here’s some irony. In a March 2003 performance in, of all places, Columbus, Ohio, Shindell said this: “Unfortunately this song keeps getting more and more relevant in this crazy country we live in…. I wish it would become obsolete.” Listen to that performance here:

His post was prompted by the inclusion of Joan Baez’s 1997 cover of this song in a list of 20 of Baez’s best songs compiled by Guardian music critic Alexis Petridis, who writes: “[T]he barely contained fury with which Baez sings folk singer Richard Shindell’s sharp lyrics – about an undocumented Latin American migrant facing a US immigration officer – is quite something to behold.”

Here’s Baez’s wonderful take:

Here’s Shindell’s post followed by his searing lyrics:

#82: A-pinin' to be human

Fishing, by Richard Shindell

Please have a seat. I'm sorry I'm late

I know how long you've had to wait

I did not forget your documents

No time to waste, why not begin?

Here's how it works, I've got these faces

You give them names and I won't deport you

Make sure you face my tape recorder

Make no mistake, this fountain pen

Could put you on a plane by ten

And by the way, your next of kin

I know which house she's hiding in

So now that you know whose skin you're saving

In this photograph, who's this one waving?

I think you know, so speak up, amigo

It says here that by trade you were a fisherman

Well I'll bet you Indians can really reel them in

And if you get the chance

You should try to get up to Lake Michigan

Well maybe, but then again....

Where were we then? Is he your friend?

Well I recommend that you look again

Where does he stay? What is his name?

There is no shame. He'd do the same

So what do you say? I don't have all day

It's up to you. Which will it be

Good citizen or poor campesino?

My dad used to rent us this place in Ontario

He showed us how to cast the line and tie the flies

He used to say that God rewards us for letting the small ones go

Well maybe, but I don't know

Anyway, it's easy to bite. You just take the bait

You can't fight the hook

Hurts less if you don't try to dive

Senor, as you know I was a fisherman

And how full the nets came in

We hauled them up by hand

But when we fled, I left them just out past the coral reefs

They're waiting there for me

Running deep

And here’s my recent related conversation on the Trump approach to migration: