Interrogations Of Chinese Immigrants At Angel Island Essays

Interrogations of Chinese Immigrants at Angel Island Chinese immigration, after being shut down for many years by governmental legislation and an anti- Chinese climate resumed quickly after 1906. The major earthquake and fire that occurred in San Francisco lent the Chinese immigrants a window of opportunity to regain entrance to America. Immigrants could now claim, without proof, that they were indeed the son or daughter of a citizen or a partner in a legitimate business. These paper sons and paper merchants increased the number of Chinese immigrants by an unbelievable rate. It was this supposed population explosion that would lead the United States to investigate all incoming Chinese immigrants. Being wary of the impossibility of so many legitimate children of U.S. citizens of Chinese descent, the department of immigration and naturalization sought out to verify that these people were indeed the true sons and daughters or the actual businessmen that they claimed to be. Therefore it was against this historical background and unde! r these particular auspices that the interrogations at Angel Island were carried out from 1910 to 1940. These interrogations were by no means fair, nor were they based on any other legal or practical precedent. While unreasonable detentions were already the norm, the act of interrogating immigrants to the extent that the Chinese were interrogated was unheard of in history. These interrogations were intricate and detailed, and designed to ensnare unwitting Chinese immigrants seeking entrance into the United States. The interrogations not only presented a hurdle for incoming immigrants by prolonging their detention at Angel Island and increasing the bureaucracy required to process Chinese immigrants, but would deeply scar the Chinese landing in the United States. Moreover, the traumatic experiences at Angel Island coupled with other practices following the detentions such as raids of Chinatown during the Red Scare of the 1950's led to a persistent fear of deportation by landed C! hinese. The interrogations were more than just simple interview questions about one's village or parents, rather they were, taken as a whole, another method to exclude the Chinese from America. The entire interrogation was loosely structured but by no means were they were regular or fair. After being held at Angel Island on a writ of habeas corpus, Chinese immigrants were interrogated by a Board of Special Inquiry which was composed of two inspectors, one of which was the Chairman of the Board, a stenographer, and finally an interpreter. This board was not held to technical rules of procedure or evidence as used in other federal courts but rather was allowed to use any means it deemed fit under the exclusion acts and immigration laws to ascertain the applicant's legitimacy to enter the United States (Lai 20). Nevertheless the lines of questioning were generally the same for all immigrants. The questions usually started with personal information then proceeded onto family information, village information, and then finally information on the home. Within these groupings there were multiple side questions concerning details of the family or village. Immigrants were aske! d extremely detailed and far ranging questions within these side questions. They were asked questions similar to the questions Jow Yick faced in 1909 in case #1424, "Is she (your mother) a small footed woman?" or "Is any body of water near or within sight of your house?" Other questions concerning the village became increasingly detailed. In the case of Ung Shee, case #16778/2-12, the husband had to testify on the entire village and all the particulars of the inhabitants of each home. In one instance the inspector asked the husband of Ung Shee whether or not the woman in the third house and fourth row of the village had bound feet. In Ung Shee's case, detailed questioning about every family in every house was continued up until the seventh row of the village. Her husband also endured questions such as, "Do you cross a stream going to the market?" and "How large is the bridge over that stream?" as well as other questions such as, "Did your brother have a picture of yourself in ! his house?" (Box 1211 National Archives). This however, was not far from the norm for most immigrants. To give a general idea of the structure of the interrogation,