"Paper Sons": Chinese American illegal immigrants

CNN anchor Richard Lui reports on "Paper Sons and Daughters," a group of Chinese immigrants that bought fake papers and claimed to be the children of legal U.S. citizens in order to skirt the Chinese Exclusion Act. His report looks into studies that show one third of today's current Chinese American population are descendants or are actual "paper sons or daughters" today.

>> Erika Gee grew up like any other Los Angeles kid, playing with Barbie and

clutching on to Pooh Bear for dear life. But she was different. Her grandfather

was not who he said he was. He'd come to the United States from China illegally

as a Paper Son, paying about $1800 to attach himself to another family.

>> I found out in high school. I was pretty surprised, and the legacy is that in

some ways our family came in illegally, and I was wondering are we going to get

deported?

>> Now, 35 years old, Erika Gee is with the Angel Island Immigration Station

Foundation, an organization that has researched Paper Sons.

>> Who are these people? They don't have the same last name as us. How could

they be related to us?

>> One scholar estimates 150,000 Paper Sons and Daughters committed this crime

to navigate around the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

>> We have to remember the times. It was during the Chinese Exclusion Act, and

at the time, and still is today, the only law in the U.S. immigration history

books that specifically excluded a specific group of people, and those were

Chinese laborers.

>> 125 years ago this month, the Chinese Exclusion Act was approved by Congress.

It stated that in the opinion of the government of the United States, the coming

of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain

localities.

>> The fear among the Californians and those especially in the Bay area of all

these Chinese wanting to take over their jobs. These were all people that were

willing to work, that helped to build the railroads and yet when the railroads

were completed, all of a sudden there's this hysteria about the Chinese

invading.

>> For 61 years until 1943, it was illegal for Chinese who were not among the

elite to enter the United States. David Leong was a Paper Son. He was eight in

1940, the year he came through Angel Island Immigration Station, the main

gateway for Chinese immigrants. While on the boat for 20 days, he memorized his

coaching papers, grand cheat sheets, that outlined who your fake parents and

siblings were and who lived on certain blocks of your would-be family village in

China. Young David had to convince his Angel Island interrogators he was the son

of a Mr. Chan and not a Mr. Leong.

>> So this is the interrogation room. This is where you walked in after three

weeks and what do you remember of this?

>> I think it was me, interpreter and interrogator, and I think two people on

the panel.

>> Leong passed the interrogation, and that's why today he was able to return

with us to Angel Island Immigration Station. Today, there's only a rebuilt

foundation of where the main administration building once stood. As we walked,

Leong spoke about his acting ability as an 8-year-old and the life he escaped

from in China.

>> The Japanese was -- plane was shooting at us, and missing us but then

[inaudible] was hitting the sand, and the sand was rising just as you see in the

movies.

>> Leong escaped a war as well as dirt floor living conditions to come to the

United States. On Angel Island, he was alone with no family and recalls the

fears he had.

>> At night, I won't go to the bathroom at all. People -- I heard people had

commit suicide in there because they couldn't [inaudible].

>> The fear Leong shares is what litters the walls of the Angel Island barracks,

poems of melancholy retrospectives of life in China or simple hopes of freedom.

Daniel Quan is an architect specializing in museums and has been researching the

history of Angel Island for 13 years.

>> The frustration that was felt by many of the detainees was written on the

walls as a statement or sort of silent statement, and so for them, the feeling

was this was a prison because they were just being held with -- against their

will. And for a lot of people, this was -- they heard about the immigration

process in China but actually have experienced it and lived in the wooden

building as they called it -- was something very different for them because they

weren't used to be helding against their will.

>> Under reconstruction now, the barracks here at Angel Island Immigration

Station held some 300 detainees at a time. The purpose was to keep them here

from two weeks to two years as they were interrogated. They were trying to keep

out illegal immigrants, potential Paper Sons and potential Paper Daughters.

Today, no one can enter inside the buildings of Immigration Station. The walls

are falling, halls dangerous with holes in the floor and the paint mosaic of

delapidation. Still many visitors come to the island to learn about their own

past.

>> Often we've met people that come over here, and they learn about their

parents' past through researching the national archives or through meeting

people that have worked with Immigration Station project and didn't even know

about it through their own family.

>> That is because many Paper Sons and Daughters still feel embarrassment or

even fear of being deported to this day, which takes us back to Erika Gee. She

was lucky enough to hear from her own grandfather who broke his silence and told

her real family name was Chen. But some questions remain.

>> Are you glad that your grandfather committed the crime?

>> In some ways, no because it was a crime, but at the same time, I'm really

fortunate that he did, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the risks

that he took in order to come over to the United States and to provide a better

opportunity for his family.

>> And when asked about immigrants trying to do what her grandfather did a

century ago, she waivers.

>> I don't know. I don't know if I feel comfortable saying it's okay for people

to come in.

>> It's perplexing for you, isn't it?

>> Yeah.

>> Hundreds of thousands of Chinese Americans face a similar dilemma.

Researchers suggest that one in three Chinese Americans are survivors or

descendants of the Paper Son system. That's about one million people. And many

only learn of their background as a love one takes the paper secret to their

grave, which was the case for Erika's cousins.

>> Some of my cousins are a little confused because they don't read Chinese, and

-- but then they know our character Gee, and then they're like well where is it

on the tombstone?

>> Erika still visits her grandfather's grave site to pay her respects to a

tombstone that has not one but two names engraved. His Paper Son name in English

and his real name in Chinese. Richard Lui, CNN Oakland, California.