Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about legislation that would remove the obstacles preventing Filipino veterans of World War II from being united with their children, a situation whose roots reach back almost eight decades.

   The Philippine Independence Act of 1934 established the Philippines, a U.S. possession since 1898, as a commonwealth with certain powers over its internal affairs but with sovereign power retained by the United States. The Act also established a ten-year timetable for the commonwealth to achieve independence from the United States.

   In early 1941, in the face of Japan's military aggression in Asia, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invoked his authority, based on the retention of U.S. sovereign power over the Philippines to ``call and order into the service of the Armed Forces of the United States all of the organized military forces of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.''

   In January of 1942, a month after it attacked Pearl Harbor, Japan invaded the Philippines and occupied the commonwealth until August 1945.

   Two months later, in March of 1942, Congress and President Roosevelt enacted the Second War Powers Act, which included the Nationality Act of 1940 that authorized the naturalization of all aliens serving in the U.S. armed forces.

   The 200,000 Filipinos that served in the U.S. armed forces were critical to the Philippine resistance and to the island's liberation in August 1945. Approximately 7,000 Filipinos who served outside the Philippines were naturalized pursuant to the Nationality Act of 1940 while another 4,000 who served inside the Philippines were naturalized between the liberation of the Philippines in August 1945 and the expiration of the Act on December 31, 1946.

   In 1990, my distinguished colleague Senator Daniel K. Inouye was instrumental in enacting the Immigration Act of 1990. This law offered Filipino veterans who had not been naturalized pursuant to the Nationality Act of 1940, the opportunity to obtain U.S. citizenship.

   Of the Filipino veterans who were naturalized for their service in the U.S. armed forces, many chose to become U.S. residents. Because the offer of naturalization did not extend to their children, these men filed permanent resident status petitions for their children who remained in the Philippines. Sadly, those children, now adults, have languished on the visa waiting list for decades because of backlogs and visa limits.

   My bill, the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act of 2011, would exempt the children in question from the numerical limitation on visas. Family unification has been the centerpiece of U.S. Immigration policy for more than a half century, and my bill would reunite the Filipino veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, with their children at long last.

   The Filipino veterans and their children have been kept apart for far too long, and I urge my colleagues to join me in making their long-awaited reunion possible.

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