[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 19 (Friday, February 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E275-E276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E275]]


         THE INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPASSIONATE VISITOR VISA ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. ED CASE

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 17, 2005

  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to reintroduce my bill from the 
108th Congress that will provide greater flexibility in issuance of 
temporary visitor visas to the alien relatives of citizens in urgent 
and compelling circumstances involving those citizens such as life-
threatening or terminal health conditions or memorial services. In 
doing so, we will assure that our own brothers and sisters are provided 
basic compassion and family unity in their time of need.
  The post-9/11 world demands that our immigration policy ensure our 
national security. So let me say up front that nothing in this bill 
forecloses U.S. consular prerogatives in that regard.
  However, after this prerequisite has been met, we need to provide for 
a greater accommodation than current law and practice allow of 
immediate and urgent needs of our own fellow citizens for relatives 
seeking temporary admission due to extenuating circumstances. 
Specifically, my bill allows such applicants to overcome the statutory 
presumption against immigration for a brief stay occasioned by a 
demonstrated and immediate family obligation or need involving a 
parent, child, sibling, grandchild, or grandparent.
  My office has been involved in numerous cases in which many of my 
constituents were left heartbroken at the news of a nonimmigrant visa 
denial for such occasions as to attend a funeral or visit a terminally 
ill family member. There are also instances where the immediate 
relative of a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident has been denied 
entry into our country to donate a matched organ to a family member.
  These families were willing to purchase plane tickets, arrange for 
accommodations, in short everything anyone of us would do for a 
visiting loved one. Temporary visa applicants had documentation to 
prove that they had every reason to return to their country of origin: 
they maintained homes, businesses, bank accounts, and had other family 
members, often small children, that would remain behind. Yet it was to 
no avail, and families were left separated for important, often life-
changing, events.
  These are some examples:
  The parents of a 27-year-old U.S. citizen who was murdered by her 
husband were barred from attending her funeral, which had to go on with 
out them. They were thereby prevented from then comforting their 5-
year-old granddaughter. All told, they have made over a half-dozen I8-
hour bus rides to the U.S. Embassy in Manila to obtain travel visas, 
only to have their applications turned down every time as they were 
deemed to not have sufficiently strong ties to their own country.
  A terminally ill naturalized U.S. citizen who has not seen any of her 
siblings for more than 20 years wanted to see just one of them one last 
time. A sister had applied for a nonimmigrant visa to be able to visit 
and care for her sibling and, in the process, would voluntarily leave 
behind her own husband and young children in the Philippines for this 
purpose. Unfortunately, her visa application was recently denied. The 
main reason cited was that her husband's income was too modest and she 
was not currently employed.
  A recent article in the Honolulu Advertiser detailed the gripping 
story of Francisco Guerrero, a U.S. citizen who for the past 6 years 
has had to undergo dialysis treatment for several hours three times a 
week in Honolulu, while in the Philippines, his son Glenn, not a U.S. 
citizen, is willing to donate a life-saving kidney that is considered a 
near-perfect match. Yet Glenn has been denied a temporary visa to visit 
the U.S. for the operation because our consulate has determined he does 
not have a demonstrated intent to return to his country thereafter. I 
include the text of that article at the end of my remarks today.
  These are compelling stories of a well-intentioned Federal 
immigration policy gone very wrong. I suspect that many of you have 
similar stories affecting families in your district.
  Again, the problem these stories graphically illustrate and the 
solution my bill offers have nothing to do with preserving our homeland 
security. These applicants were subject to a security review like other 
applicants, and nothing in the Compassionate Visitor Visa Act would 
alter that.
  The reason for the rejection of such applications lies instead in the 
application of the presumption clause in current immigration law. In 
practice, applicants for nonimmigrant visas are presumed to be at risk 
of defaulting on their visas and remaining in our country illegally 
unless they can affirmatively prove that they will return to their 
countries. In the cases above, the applicants provided documentation to 
overcome this presumption and demonstrate they had every reason to 
return to their country of origin: they maintained homes, businesses, 
bank accounts, and would leave other family members, often children, 
behind, but to no avail.
  The Compassionate Visitor Visa Act says that the presumption clause, 
as applied to close family members of U.S. citizens or legal permanent 
residents that are seriously ill or who have died, is wrong and should 
be changed. It is focused on the wants and needs not of the applicant, 
but our own fellow citizens.
  Opponents of the bill may argue that the result would be to detract 
from homeland security and enhance the default rate on nonimmigrant 
visas. First, again nothing in this bill changes or compromises 
procedures designed to identify and weed out security threats, so that 
cannot be used as an excuse to avoid the focus of this bill. Second, 
this bill does not say that consular officers cannot consider evidence 
of applicants' willingness to honor visa terms and return to their 
countries, but it does say that the deck won't be virtually impossibly 
stacked against them from the get-go. And third, this bill applies only 
in the narrow case of an applicant whose close family member has a 
serious illness or has died or has some other similar family emergency, 
as demonstrated by proof to the satisfaction of the consular officers.
  I stand here today willing to take the chance of loosening the 
standard for those most in need because it is the right thing to do. 
Our U.S. consulates are not entitled to deny an American his or her 
life. I urge passage of the Compassionate Visitor Visa Act.

             [From the Honolulu Advertiser, Feb. 13, 2005]

              Denial of Visa Stymies Filipino Organ Donors

                  (By Frank Oliveri and Vicki Viotti)

       For six years, Francisco Guerrero has had his blood 
     cleansed by a machine for several hours three times a week at 
     St. Francis Medical Center in Honolulu because his kidneys 
     have failed.
       In the Philippines, his son, Glenn, studies architecture 
     and waits with a life-saving kidney that is considered a 
     near-perfect match for his father. But the U.S. government 
     won't grant the 28-year-old a temporary visa because he can't 
     prove he'll return to the Philippines.
       The U.S. Consulate in Manila says the Lawag City resident 
     fits the profile of an undesirable visitor--someone who poses 
     a risk of overstaying a temporary visa because of his 
     background and his homeland's tenuous situation.
       Glenn Guerrero has only a part-time job, is relatively poor 
     and already has a pending application to emigrate to the 
     United States.
       The Guerreros' plight is not uncommon at St. Francis, the 
     only organ transplant center in the Central Pacific. There 
     are at least 15 Filipino patients there who face the same 
     bureaucratic roadblocks to getting a visa for an organ donor, 
     and all have been rejected. They have all but given up hope 
     of bringing their relatives to the United States for the 
     life-saving surgery. No patients are known to have died while 
     trying to cut the red tape after finding a donor match. But 
     hospital officials said many Filipinos have a rare blood type 
     and die while waiting for a kidney because they never find a 
     match.
       The issue, according to interviews with immigration 
     experts, hospital staff, patients and their families, is the 
     intense scrutiny of the visa applications from potential 
     Filipino organ donors since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist 
     attacks.
       Before 9/11, St. Francis successfully processed about three 
     visa applications a year to bring organ donors to the states. 
     Since then, the immigration laws have stayed the same but 
     officers at the consulate who review applications have gotten 
     tougher. They search for clues giving them reasonable 
     assurance that the organ donors will return to the 
     Philippines.
       ``We don't determine between a medical visit or a trip to 
     Disneyland,'' said Kelly Shannon, spokeswoman for the Bureau 
     of Consular Affairs at the U.S. State Department. ``Congress 
     wrote the law, and it is virtually unchanged since 1952. It 
     requires the assumption of an intention to emigrate. You

[[Page E276]]

     have to show a reason to compel your return home.''
       Francisco Guerrero, 59, does not understand why Glenn's 
     intent to save his father's life isn't enough to support the 
     younger man's visa application.
       ``Sometimes they should try to be more understanding of the 
     situation,'' the elder Guerrero said. ``I think these people 
     don't care. They should think of the purpose of the person 
     who is coming here.''


                        Key Issues for Filipinos

       There are 389 other patients in Hawai'i who are waiting for 
     a kidney--a wait that can last up to seven years. More than 
     100 of those patients were born in the Philippines.
       U.S. Consulate officials say Filipinos are treated in the 
     same way as any other foreign nationals who wish to come to 
     the United States on a temporary visa. But with few systems 
     in place to track visitors once they have arrived and note 
     when they have departed, overworked officers at the consulate 
     are often the only line of defense against unwanted visitors.
       ``They have gotten tougher,'' said Jessica Vaughan, a 
     former chief consular official at the U.S. Consulate in Port 
     of Spain, Trinidad. Vaughan is now a senior policy analyst 
     for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.
       The law requires consular officials to assume that every 
     applicant hopes to move to the United States permanently, 
     according to Vaughan. It places the burden on the applicants 
     to prove they would return to their home country.
       The issue is complicated for Filipino organ donors because:
       Many applicants are poor, with little property and money or 
     a good job to return to in the Philippines.
       Filipinos already are one of the largest groups seeking 
     permanent visas to the United States. Any person seeking a 
     temporary visa, who also has requested a permanent visa, 
     faces likely rejection for a short stay. In some cases, 
     officials are so backlogged in reviewing visas that only now 
     are they considering applications dating back to 1990.
       There are already an estimated 85,000 Filipinos who live 
     illegally in the United States. Officials say it is likely 
     that most of them simply overstayed their temporary visas.
       Hawai'i lawmakers have asked the State Department to look 
     into the organ donor cases at St. Francis.
       Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawai'i, said he plans to reintroduce a 
     bill to remove any presumption that an applicant intends to 
     stay in the United States if they are coming here for family 
     emergencies. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, co-sponsored 
     the bill when it was first introduced in late 2003.
       Hawai'i's two senators have written letters to the State 
     Department asking officials there to take a close look at the 
     problem.
       ``I'm willing to take the chance of loosening the standard 
     because he or she has demonstrated his or her mother is going 
     to die on the island of Maui,'' Case said. ``It is the right 
     thing to do.''
       Case said he supports keeping the borders safe. But the 
     current law ``puts a disproportionate burden on the Filipino 
     community and that's not fair,'' he said. The U.S. Consulate, 
     Case said, is ``not entitled to deny an American his or her 
     life.''


                          Expenses, long waits

       Since 9/11, the total number of all types of visas granted 
     in the United States has declined because there have been 
     fewer applicants. Vaughan, the former consular official, 
     stresses that each application is evaluated one at a time.
       ``It's not discrimination,'' she said. ``It may be that 
     more people qualify from Japan than in the Philippines. The 
     conditions in that country--economic, social or political 
     conditions--are factored into the consular officer's 
     decision.''
       Although the Philippine government has taken an interest in 
     the transplant patients at St. Francis and their families, 
     one official concedes there isn't much it can do.
       ``We cannot intervene,'' said Eva Ditita, Philippines 
     deputy consul general. ``We can help on the Philippine side 
     and facilitate their papers, but the ball is on the (U.S.) 
     State Department side. This is a humanitarian undertaking.''
       Complicating matters is the lengthy--and expensive--
     application process. Cathy Bailey, transplant evaluation 
     coordinator at St. Francis, said it takes about a year to 
     compile all the medical information required for a kidney 
     donor in another country, compared with about three months 
     for a donor in the United States.
       The U.S. government also requires a long list of documents, 
     from income-tax returns and bank statements, to prove the 
     kidney recipient can support the organ donor for the six 
     months they are required to stay in the United States.
       Tissue and blood tests for each potential donor cost about 
     $3,500, and the results are good for only a few months before 
     they must be performed again, Bailey said. The donor also 
     must pay for travel to Manila for an interview with U.S. 
     Consulate officials and pay for hotel expenses while there as 
     well as for medical tests and doctors' fees.
       She said most kidney patients rely on Medicare to pay for 
     the surgery, which costs about $200,000, and for about 
     $30,000 worth of drugs annually to ensure the body does not 
     reject the donated organ. Patients don't travel to the 
     Philippines for the surgery because Medicare would not cover 
     drug costs upon their return.
       ``They almost always come to me crying,'' Bailey said. 
     ``It's not like I can do anything. It is very costly for 
     these people.''


                         Lahaina woman's plight

       Hilaria Taborada, a 51-year-old Lahaina cashier, has spent 
     a lot of money on medical tests and visa fees and untold 
     hours worrying about her future ever since she was diagnosed 
     with kidney failure in 1999.
       One nephew was determined to be a good match as a donor but 
     was too ill to undergo the surgery; a visa application by 
     another nephew was rejected in December because it was deemed 
     that he had no compelling reason to return home.
       Taborada undergoes dialysis at home, but still must travel 
     to the hospital for frequent tests.
       ``How many times I'm going back and forth to the 
     hospital,'' she sighed. ``I always have infections.''
       Taborada's brother is transferring his own property to the 
     nephew in the hope that the U.S. government will recognize 
     the property as a reason for the nephew to return to the 
     Philippines.
       Vaughan said that when she worked for the U.S. Consulate in 
     Trinidad, the refusal rate for nonimmigrant visas for people 
     from that West Indies nation (Trinidad and Tobago) was 50 
     percent.
       She said most of the people she dealt with had similar 
     backgrounds as those Filipinos seeking temporary visas.
       ``Officers do the best they can, based on the information 
     and time they have available,'' she said. But ``it's a very 
     imperfect science.''

                          ____________________