Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) today reintroduced the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act to exempt children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitation on immigrant visas.
Senator Akaka's bill is rooted in a chapter of U.S. military history that remains largely unknown to the American public. Before the Philippines became an independent republic on July 4, 1946, the country was a commonwealth with the United States. During World War II, 200,000 members of the organized military forces of the commonwealth were ordered into the service of the Armed Forces of the United States.
"Although decades after the fact, the federal government's enactment of the Immigration Act of 1990 finally offered Filipino veterans recognition for their World War II service, by offering then the opportunity to obtain U.S. citizenship," Senator Akaka said. "The Act did not extend the same opportunity to the veterans' children. Many of the Filipino veterans who now reside in the United States have been separated from their children for many years."
"My bill seeks to reunite the naturalized Filipino veterans with their sons and daughters, many of whom have been on the immigration waiting lists for years, by exempting the veterans' adult children from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas," said Senator Akaka.
Senator Akaka introduced his Filipino Veterans Family Reunification bill in the 109th Congress. His bill was incorporated into the Omnibus Immigration Reform Bill, which passed the Senate last year. However, the bill was never enacted into law because the House and Senate could not agree on a compromise bill.
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