More than 25% of the Chinese population in the United States in 1950 was illegal. Many of the methods of entering the country simply took advantage of administrative incompetence on the part of the United States and their inability to keep track of legals — many simply claimed US citizenship at the Mexican border.

The most common phenomenon was that of “paper sons,” whereby tens of thousands of Chinese men pretended to be the sons of Chinese-Americans with citizenship. Correct suspicions of these sorts of practices grew among non-Chinese Americans, which only pushed tensions further. This was compounded by the unwillingness to assimilate by diasporic Chinese populations, allowing for the formation of the isolated Chinatowns we still see today.

The repeal of the Exclusion Act in 1943 did not significantly change the reality for Chinese immigrants. While there was now greater opportunity for legal entry, the US continued to limit their numbers through racist quotas. The McCarran-Walter Act, passed in 1952, apportioned quotas based on current populations of a given nationality in the US, meaning that European countries had much higher quotas than the rest of the world. Additionally, Asian quotas were created based on race rather than nationality, further limiting their numbers. Thus, paper immigration would be the only way.

It wasn’t until the end of the 20th century that the methods of illegal immigration truly expanded. The practices went from simple forgery and lies, to human trafficking and the extortion.

Snakehead gangs were the conductors of these smuggling operations. A single snakehead operation could have more than 10 individuals involved in a variety of roles, from guides to debt-collectors. Immigrants would typically be led to an intermediary country (Canada and Mexico would be the typical final stops before the US), where they would wait for the right time to finalize the crossing.

The most common fees charged by smugglers were upwards of $70,000. A down payment was universal, but the schemes would typically allow immigrants to pay the rest along the way and after the successful journey. Sometimes the price would unexpectedly be increased and there was little and immigrant could do about it — once in the United States, they would typically be held in a communal living space by a number of debt-collectors, individuals who would intimidate and abuse them until they paid the fare.

A smuggled immigrant would often be a family investment, and therefore funded by a number of relatives back in China. Even if they successfully completed the journey, and even if they were able to be freed from the snakeheads and live in the United States, there would be tremendous pressure to pay back family back home. Snakehead gangs provided a service for such immigrants, but at a great cost.