The Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act, or House Resolution 2412, aims to exempt the sons and daughters of Filipino veterans from immigration numerical quotas that have delayed processing of their U.S. visas, leaving them no choice but to wait as much as 18 years.

Hirono said thousands of Filipinos petitioned by their veteran parents stand to benefit once the bill is enacted into law.

She added that a companion bill would soon be introduced in the senate by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

A staunch supporter of Filipino veterans, Hirono said about 200,000 Filipinos served with American troops during me last world war.

According to her, only about 18,000 of those Filipino veterans are alive, including the 7,000 to 8,000 living in the United States, most of them concentrated in California, Hawaii and a few other states with large concentration of ethnic Filipinos.

"These soldiers were members of the United States Armed Forces of the Far East. They were led to believe that at the end of the conflict they would be treated the same as American soldiers," Hirono said. "It took more than 60 years to begin to make good on our commitment. The Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act recognizes the special circumstances surrounding this group of soldiers."

Appeal for haste

Franco Arcebal, the vice president of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, urged the immediate passage of the bill on humanitarian grounds to allow the aging veterans, most of them in their mid- or late 80s, to spend their final years or months with their loved ones.

"Our fondest wish as parents is to be united with our children, who have been living away from us for years and years now," said the 85-year-old Arcebal of Los Angeles in a phone interview.

Hirono said that in 1990, the U.S. Congress recognized the courage and heroism of the Filipino veterans by providing them with a waiver from certain naturalization requirements.

As a result, she added, many veterans became proud American citizens and settled in the United States.

But allowances were not made for their children and many have been waiting for decades for petition approval.

Hirono said the bill she reintroduced in Congress would serve as further recognition of the services of these veterans by granting their children a special immigration status that would allow them to immigrate to the United States and be reunited with their aging parents.

She initially introduced the bill in 2007.

Akaka is expected to file a companion bill.

The website of Akaka said the act was actually passed by the Senate as an amendment to the Omnibus Immigration Reform Bill by the 109th Congress in 2007.

The Senate and the House, however, failed to come up with a compromise measure on the contentious immigration reform bill.

Long process

Depending on the date the petitions were filed by the Filipino veterans who have opted for American citizenship in the early 1990s, the waiting time takes at least 18 years.

According to the Current Visa Bulletin website, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) in the Department of Homeland Security is currently processing petitions for unmarried sons and daughters (21 years of age or older) filed by the U.S. citizen parents as of Jan. 15, 1998.

Petitions filed as of June 15, 1991 for married children, or those belonging to the so-called third preference, are current as of April.

The wait is even longer for brothers and sisters of adult citizens (fourth preference), since the BCIS is processing petitions filed as of June 22, 1986.

The reason for the delays is the huge backlog of pending petitions of family members by U.S. citizens not only from the Philippines but other countries such as Mexico, China and India.