“[T]he immigration [officials] got [sic] mad and say you are not born in the U.S.,” Gin Foo wrote Kim, adding that the authorities argued that the photo of Hung was not him. “You better send a telegram to Washington and fix it for me,” Gin Foo pleaded. “One or two weeks they will send me back to Cuba … It is cold here not much to eat.”
Due to the prevalence of the paper son system, as indicated by the Havana consul, Chinese migration in particular drew the attention of immigration officials who subjected them to intense interrogations that could span two or three days. Day expressed skepticism about the process in his translation of Gin Foo’s letter by typing an aside below it arguing that officials were purposely transposing Hung’s identity on Gin Foo. In general, Day believed officials were trying to “frighten this boy into admitting that he is not native born.”
The interrogation process itself was terrifying, argues historian Erika Lee. Applicants were often asked between 200 and 1,000 questions over the course of two to three days. Even mistakes on minor details could lead to detention and deportation. Angel Island, known as the Ellis Island of the West Coast, especially for Chinese and other Asians, was notorious for such surveillance. Day commented on this in his postscript of Gin Foo’s letter noting that it was “practiced more in San Francisco than anywhere else.” The walls of Angel Island barracks are strewn with over 200 poems by detainees as a testament to the “frustration, anger, resentment, loneliness, and despair” of the immigration process. Of the 95,687 Chinese who sought admittance into the U.S. between 1910 and 1940, nearly 10 percent were turned back. Many appealed decisions and gained entry while about five percent were forced to return to China. Many were detained at Angel Island for weeks.
In addition to his postscript note, Day provided accounts of the interrogation that indicate his own doubts about the process. According to Day, the authorities took Kim’s testimony only to establish “the fact that no white person of the proper age were presented before the Examiner” who Day added, repeatedly lamented the absence of “’old white persons’ who knew the facts.” Kim introduced his neighbor, an older Chinese woman, who attested to Gin Foo’s identity and repudiated the photographs produced by officials.