Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolution

Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act of 2021. This important legislation would expedite the visa process for adult children of Filipino World War II veterans, so they can reunite with their relatives in the United States. Today, fewer than 6,000 Filipino World War II veterans remain. Many of these veterans are now in their late 80s and 90s, and have been separated from their loved ones for far too long.

During World War II, more than 250,000 Filipino soldiers fought under the American flag to protect and defend the United States in the Pacific theater. These Filipino soldiers fought shoulder to shoulder with U.S. servicemembers, and approximately 60,000 died in battle. The U.S. government promised these veterans compensation and benefits in exchange for their loyal service to our country. However, after the war, Congress passed the Rescission Act of 1946, denying Filipino veterans many of the benefits conferred to other World War II veterans.

Filipino World War II veterans were not awarded U.S. citizenship until 1990, more than 40 years after they risked their lives for our Nation. Although the Immigration Act of 1990 granted U.S. citizenship to approximately 26,000 Filipino nationals who served during World War II, the law did not confer citizenship or residency to their children. Therefore, the children of the Filipino veterans are required to apply for family-based green cards which are subject to an annual limitation as well as a country cap. Under the cap, only seven percent of recipients are permitted to come from a single country. These limitations have created a large backlog of people trying to reunite with family from the Philippines and as a result, some Filipino applicants must wait nearly two decades before their petitions can be considered.

In an attempt to partially resolve this issue, in 2016 under the Obama Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) established the Filipino World War II Veterans Parole (FWVP) program to reunite veterans and their surviving spouses with their adult children and siblings. Under FWVP, USCIS can grant parole on a discretionary, case-by-case basis, to a veteran's family member so that they may come to the United States as they wait for their immigrant visa to become available. This policy recognizes the extraordinary contributions and sacrifices of Filipino veterans while also allowing these elderly veterans to be cared for by family. Despite the value of this program, the Trump Administration announced its intention to terminate FWVP and in December 2020, published final steps to end this program in the Federal Register. I joined Rep. Ed Case in sending a bicameral and bipartisan letter with colleagues to President Biden in February, urging the new administration to rescind the termination efforts and renew FWVP.

The threat to end FWVP persists to this day. The legislation that I am introducing, the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act of 2021, would resolve this issue permanently and fulfill our nation's promise to honor the Filipino World War II veterans' service to our country. This bill would help to reunite these families by exempting the sons and daughters of Filipino World War II veterans from immigration limitations in the Immigration and Nationality Act. This change in law would benefit only a few thousand surviving Filipino World War II veterans who desperately want to be reunited with their children in their last years.

I call on my Senate colleagues to quickly pass this bill. ______

By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Warner, Mr. Rubio, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Blunt, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Burr, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Sasse, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Cotton, Mr. King, and Mr. Risch):

S. 1714. A bill to amend the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 to authorize the provision of payment to personnel of the Central Intelligence Agency who incur qualifying injuries to the brain, to authorize the provision of payment to personnel of the Department of State who incur similar injuries, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

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