After adopting hundreds of amendments, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill out of its committee to the Senate floor. On its last day of deliberation on May 22, 2013, the bill allowing children of Filipino World War II veterans to immigrate immediately irrespective of priority dates was adopted as one of the many amendments. It is now part of the senate version of the comprehensive immigration reform. What is the impact of the inclusion of this specific amendment to the pending petitions of the sons and daughters of Filipino veterans?
Dying Veterans
The mortality rate of the greatest generation is high; approximately 1,153 veterans die a day based on information provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This is the figure for all veterans in the United States. Our Filipino World War II veterans who were naturalized to become U.S. citizens are obviously passing on at an accelerated rate due to their age. Most of them are in their late 80s and early 90s.
As more veterans pass, beneficiary children of their pending petitions also lose out on their opportunity to immigrate to the United States. This is a result of the general rule that the “petition dies with the petitioner”. There are a few exceptions of cases involving humanitarian revalidation.
A Typical Veteran Case
Jessie is an adult married son of a World War II veteran. With the enactment of the 1990 Immigration and Nationality Act (IMMACT90), thousands of World War II veterans were allowed to naturalize to become U.S. citizens. In the early 1990’s there was an influx of elderly veterans immigrating for the first time to the United States. Felipe was one of the veterans who arrived in 1992. Jessie, his son, accompanied his father and entered only with a visitor’s visa.
When Felipe obtained his U.S. citizenship, he immediately petitioned all his children. Since Jessie was already in the United States at that time, he opted to wait for his visa. Initially, Jessie assumed that the visa would be issued as soon as the petition is approved. He was told that since he is an adult child of a U.S. citizen, he would have to wait for at least 18 to 20 years before he can adjust his status. By the time, Jessie discovered this fact, his authorized stay already expired and beginning in 1993, he has been living as an undocumented immigrant.
Jessie’s siblings in the Philippines who were petitioned fall under the third preference family category and have also been waiting for their petitions to be processed. As married children, they were told that it would take more than 20 years because of the backlog in family petitions.
In April 2013, the priority date of Jessie’s petition filed by his father became current. After waiting for almost 20 years, he was finally told that he was eligible to apply for his adjustment to permanent resident status. As he was preparing for his documents, his father suffered a heart attack and died after a few days from the date he was taken to the hospital.
Jessie was informed that he could still apply for the visa despite his petitioner’s death because there is Section 204(l) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the petitioned child to reinstate the revoked visa petition as long as they were in the United States at the time of the death of the petitioner. His siblings in the Philippines lost their opportunity to immigrate because they were not covered by this humanitarian reinstatement.
Thousands of sons and daughters of Filipino veterans experience the same fate as Jessie’s siblings. The hope of family reunification by elderly Filipino veterans was an elusive dream until recently when a bill was drafted addressing this issue.
Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act
Considering that the veterans became U.S. citizens only when they were in their 70s and 80s, the length of the processing time in petitioning their adult children did not work in their favor. By the time the priority dates became current, most veterans passed away without being reunited with their families in the United States. In order to expedite the reunification of the Filipino veterans with their families, a bill has been introduced at least in the last two Congresses called the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act. The bill pertains to sons and daughters of Filipino World War II and their immigration visa petitions. Their visa petitions will be exempt from the numerical limitation making the visas immediately available irrespective of their priority dates or dates of filing. The family reunification bill benefits families of all qualified veterans including the deceased veterans. Representative Mike Honda (CA17), Representative Colleen Hanabusa (HI) and Senator Mazie Hirono, (HI) are the proponents of the bill.
Unlike in the past Congresses, this time the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act took a major leap. With the amendment proposed by Senator Hirono on May 22, 2013, the veteran bill is now a part of the Senate version of the comprehensive immigration bill. This is a major step taken but there will be more challenges with the Republican dominated House of Representatives. If the House adopts the same provision on its comprehensive immigration reform, then doors will open for the descendants of the Filipino veterans to immigrate, without further delay. Hopefully, the bill will overcome the hurdles of the obstructionists and make the dream of reunification a reality for our veterans and their families.
(Atty. Lourdes Tancinco may be reached at law@tancinco.com or at 887 7177 or 721 1963 or visit her website at tancinco.weareph.com/old)
