This October, I am proud to celebrate Filipino American History Month with the Filipino American community in Nevada and across the country. Our state has been enriched by the influence of more than 100,000 Filipino Americans currently living in Nevada and the many generations that came before them. I am deeply grateful for their contributions to Nevada’s society, economy, and culture, and I’m honored to represent such a powerful and vibrant community in the U.S. Senate. As in past years, I am proud to again cosponsor the Senate resolution designating October 2016 as Filipino American History Month.
Throughout my Senate career, I have spent years advocating for the Filipino community, from working hard to ensure Filipino veterans of World War II received rightful compensation for their service to urging the Administration to quickly reunify these veterans with their family members. It wasn’t until the Immigration Act of 1990 that many of the 260,000 Filipinos who fought alongside American soldiers in WWII were finally given the citizenship the United States promised them for their service. Despite this progress, many Filipino veterans were still waiting to reunite with their close family members.
This was simply unacceptable knowing the sacrifice these veterans made for our country and the contributions of Filipino Americans to our community. Our broken immigration system hindered the reunion of these families. Starting in 2007 and for many years thereafter, I consistently cosponsored legislation to see that the families of Filipino WWII veterans could be reunited by exempting children of certain Filipino World War II veterans from the numerical limitations on immigrant visas. Most recently, I sent a letter to President Obama last December with my Democratic colleagues Sen. Hirono (Hawaii) and Sen. Kaine (Virginia) urging him to quickly implement the Administration’s newly-proposed parole program to reunite Filipino World War II veterans with their family members.
After years of advocacy, the Obama Administration implemented its new parole program in June. I’m proud to say that certain family members of Filipino World War II veterans can now come to the United States to provide support and care to their aging Filipino veteran family members who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. These veterans, who have given so much to our country and our home state of Nevada, will finally receive the support and care they deserve through the new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Filipino World War II Veterans Parole (FWVP) policy. I urge Filipino Americans to learn more about this program and apply by visiting www.uscis.gov/FWVP.
The Filipino community has done so much for our country and our state, and the impact of the Filipino American community in Nevada has made the Silver State a better place. This Filipino American History Month, we not only celebrate the rich culture and proud history of Filipino Americans in Nevada and across the country, but we also finally celebrate the reunification of families and the well-deserved and long-overdue recognition of Filipino World War II veterans’ service after all these years.
