BILL ANALYSIS
AJR 25
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AJR 25 (Furutani)
As Amended February 23, 2010
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 9-0
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Tran, Brownley, | | |
| |Evans, Hagman, Jones, | | |
| |Knight, Lieu, Monning | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requests the United States (U.S.) Congress to pass,
and the President to sign, the Filipino Veterans Reunification
Act (FVRA), legislation that would exempt the children of
certain Filipino World War II veterans from numerical
limitations on immigrant visas. Specifically, this resolution :
1)States that Filipinos honorably served in the U.S. Armed
Forces and aided the United States during World War II.
2)States that the Supplemental Surplus Appropriations Rescission
Act of 1946 denied the service of Filipino veterans in the
U.S. Armed Forces, and that it was not until the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that the service of
Filipino World War II veterans was officially recognized, for
the first time, as active military service in the U.S. Armed
Forces.
3)States that the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1990
offered Filipino World War II veterans who had not been
naturalized pursuant to the Nationality Act of 1940 the
opportunity to obtain U.S. citizenship, despite those veterans
remaining ineligible for most benefits provided by the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs.
4)Asserts that many Filipino World War II veterans, now age 80
or older, filed for visa petitions for their children shortly
after passage of the 1990 Act, but continue to wait to be
reunited with their children, who languish on the visa waiting
list because our current immigration policies limit the chance
AJR 25
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for these families to reunite.
5)Memorializes the Legislature to join the U.S. Congress in
acknowledging the service of Filipino World War II veterans by
recognizing that they should be reunited with their children
during their golden years.
6)Memorializes the Legislature to request the U.S. Congress to
pass, and the President to sign, S. 1337 and H.R. 2412, which
would exempt the children of certain Filipino World War II
veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas,
thus allowing for family reunification.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : Over 60 years after the end of World War II, most
surviving Filipino veterans are now in their eighties and
nineties. According to the author, many of these veterans have
been waiting, in some cases over a decade, for the U.S.
government to approve immigrant visa petitions that would allow
their children still living in the Philippines to join them in
this country-children whose care and support many of these
veterans now need in their old age. The author attributes this
immigration backlog to the strict numerical limitations on
immigrant visas that may be issued to the children of Filipino
veterans under existing immigration law. Therefore, in order to
further recognize the service of these veterans and to promote
reunification of their families, this measure seeks to have the
Legislature request the U.S. Congress to pass, and the President
to sign, the Filipino Veterans Reunification Act (S. 1337 and
H.R. 2412), legislation introduced in Congress last year that
would exempt the children of certain Filipino World War II
veterans from these numerical limitations on immigrant visas.
Unfortunately, the valuable support provided by Filipino
soldiers in service to the U.S. military during World War II has
gone largely unrecognized by the American public in the decades
since the war. This may be in large part due to the U.S.
government's own failure to recognize the active military
service of these Filipino WWII veterans, as exemplified by
passage of the Rescission Acts of 1946, in which Congress
authorized an appropriation to the Commonwealth Army of the
Philippines on the condition that its members' service was not
deemed part of the active military service of the United States
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Armed Forces. By making this designation, the Rescission Acts
had the effect of withdrawing the U.S. government's promise to
provide full veterans' benefits to Filipino soldiers who fought
on behalf of the U.S. during WWII. The rescission of that
promise has been described by Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) as
one of that body's "least decorous acts." ("Veterans and Their
Families Deserve Justice and Honesty," San Jose Mercury News,
November 10, 2006.)
Over four decades after the end of World War II, Congress passed
the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990, which provided
approximately 24,000 Filipino World War II veterans, then in
their 70s and 80s, the opportunity to obtain United States
citizenship. According to the author, between 1990 and 1995,
many Filipino World War II veterans left their families behind
in the Philippines to come to the United States to be
naturalized and establish residence in this country. However,
naturalized Filipino veterans who filed visa petitions for their
children back home still await their arrival fifteen to twenty
years later, due to the immigration backlog created by numerical
limits capping the number of family-sponsored visas that can be
issued under Chapter 12 of Title 8 of the United States Code.
H.R. 2412 exempts the children of Filipino veterans naturalized
pursuant to the 1990 Act from the numerical limitations on
immigrant visas. Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) sponsored H.R.
2412 in Congress last May, with a companion bill, S. 1337
sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), now pending in the
U.S. Senate. This resolution would request Congress to pass,
and the President to sign, the Filipino Veterans Reunification
Act to resolve this situation rooted in almost 70 years of
history.
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0003712