For instance, Chinese-Americans who went home to visit family in China might bring back younger Chinese, claiming to be their parents.
This practice was called "Paper Sons", and it came into prominence after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and accompanying fire destroyed many of the city's records.
Thus, a lot of migration from China remained illegal, and many American citizens and residents of Chinese origin could trace their presence in the United States to some form of immigration fraud.
The program's primary benefit to confessors was that if they were eligible for a statutory remedy, their past illegal entry or misrepresentation of status would not bar them from having their paperwork processed.
[2] Since confessions by neighbors could implicate a person and lead to deportation, the program created fear and distrust in many Chinese-American communities.