[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 74 (Thursday, May 26, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3448-S3449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. AKAKA (for himself, Mr. Inouye, and Mr. Menendez):
  S. 1141. A bill to exempt children of certain Filipino World War II 
veterans

[[Page S3449]]

from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about legislation 
that would remove the obstacles preventing Filipino veterans of World 
War II from being united with their children, a situation whose roots 
reach back almost eight decades.
  The Philippine Independence Act of 1934 established the Philippines, 
a U.S. possession since 1898, as a commonwealth with certain powers 
over its internal affairs but with sovereign power retained by the 
United States. The Act also established a ten-year timetable for the 
commonwealth to achieve independence from the United States.
  In early 1941, in the face of Japan's military aggression in Asia, 
President Franklin D. Roosevelt invoked his authority, based on the 
retention of U.S. sovereign power over the Philippines to ``call and 
order into the service of the Armed Forces of the United States all of 
the organized military forces of the Government of the Commonwealth of 
the Philippines.''
  In January of 1942, a month after it attacked Pearl Harbor, Japan 
invaded the Philippines and occupied the commonwealth until August 
1945.
  Two months later, in March of 1942, Congress and President Roosevelt 
enacted the Second War Powers Act, which included the Nationality Act 
of 1940 that authorized the naturalization of all aliens serving in the 
U.S. armed forces.
  The 200,000 Filipinos that served in the U.S. armed forces were 
critical to the Philippine resistance and to the island's liberation in 
August 1945. Approximately 7,000 Filipinos who served outside the 
Philippines were naturalized pursuant to the Nationality Act of 1940 
while another 4,000 who served inside the Philippines were naturalized 
between the liberation of the Philippines in August 1945 and the 
expiration of the Act on December 31, 1946.
  In 1990, my distinguished colleague Senator Daniel K. Inouye was 
instrumental in enacting the Immigration Act of 1990. This law offered 
Filipino veterans who had not been naturalized pursuant to the 
Nationality Act of 1940, the opportunity to obtain U.S. citizenship.
  Of the Filipino veterans who were naturalized for their service in 
the U.S. armed forces, many chose to become U.S. residents. Because the 
offer of naturalization did not extend to their children, these men 
filed permanent resident status petitions for their children who 
remained in the Philippines. Sadly, those children, now adults, have 
languished on the visa waiting list for decades because of backlogs and 
visa limits.
  My bill, the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act of 2011, 
would exempt the children in question from the numerical limitation on 
visas. Family unification has been the centerpiece of U.S. Immigration 
policy for more than a half century, and my bill would reunite the 
Filipino veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, with their children at 
long last.
  The Filipino veterans and their children have been kept apart for far 
too long, and I urge my colleagues to join me in making their long-
awaited reunion possible.
                                 ______