LOS ANGELES – US Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) reintroduced a bill that would reunite US based Filipino World War II veterans with their children in the Philippines who have languished for years on the visa waiting list.
Akaka reintroduced The Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act of 2009 to the US congress earlier this week, according to the Hawaii senator’s office.
"In seeking an exemption from the numerical limitation on immigrant visas for the children of the Filipino veterans, our bill will address and resolve an issue rooted in a set of historical circumstances that are now nearly seven-decades old," Senator Akaka said.
"It does not require any appropriation and will serve to reunite these veterans with their children and honor their too-long-forgotten World War II service to this nation."
The Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act would benefit 7,000 US based Filipino WWII veterans. The Filipino veterans arrived in the US through the Immigration Act of 1990, which included a provision that offered the opportunity to obtain US citizenship. The veterans filed visa petitions for their children but many remain in the Philippines.
Now in their 80s and 90s, these men continue to wait for their children, who languish on the visa waiting lists, to join them, officials in the senator’s office said.
The legislation exempts the veterans’ children, about 20,000 individual in all, from the numerical limitation on immigrant visas.
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) are among the cosponsors of the bill.
Last year, Filipino WWII veterans received much-awaited benefits when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 included a provision that authorized the payment of benefits to the 30,000 surviving Filipino veterans in the amount of $15,000 for those who are citizens and $9,000 for those who are non-citizens. n
( Published on June 27, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A1 )
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