Speech #1100051930

Armed Forces during World War IT. either as members of the Commonwealths Army or New Philippines Scouts. only 20.000 survive today13.000 in the Philippines and 7.000 in the United States. In 1990. the World War 11 service of Filipino veterans was finally recognized by the U.S. Government through the enactment of the Immigration Act of 1990. which offered Filipino veterans the opportunity to obtain U.S. citizenship. There are currently 7.000 naturalized Filipino World War 11 veterans residing in the United States. The opportunity to obtain U.S. citizenship was not extended to the veterans sons and daughters. approximately 20.000 of whom have been waiting for their visas for years. While the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 raises the worldwide ceiling for famnilybased visas to 567.000 per year until the backlog in the family preference visa categories is eliminated. the fact remains that many of the naturalized Filipino World War 11 veterans iresiding in the United States are in their eighties and nineties. My amendment stresses the need to expedite the issuance of visas to these veterans children. Mr. President.