President Obama opens the door for WWII Filipino veterans' families

Atomazul

The long fight for justice for the Filipino veterans became a cause celebre' that spanned generations.

THOUSANDS of Filipino WWII veterans who could not reunite with their families still in the Philippines, may get soon see their dreams come true. The White House report on immigration reforms released yesterday (July 15) has a recommendation that references the veterans' plight.

The interagency report was the result of President Barack Obama's executive action in 2014 that called for the United States to reform its immigration system. The better known, and more controversial parts of the action such as a path for citizenship for undocumented immigrants, are being challenged in the courts but the White House decided to move forward on other recommendations.

“My first reaction was happiness. But I am also saddened remembering our veterans like Manong Emong Guillermo and Jack Tejada and community champions like Alex Esclamado, who walked the halls of Congress, fighting for recognition and family reunification. They are gone now but their legacy lives on,” Marites Branigin, capitol region chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), told the Los Angeles Times.

Here is the portion of the report, "Modernizing & Streamlining Our Legal Immigration System for the 21st Century," that specifically deals with the plight of the WWII veterans,

Although, there is not a set timetable for implementation of the "parole granted by the initiative, it shouldn't be a long drawn-out process. The majority of the veterans are in their 80s and 90s and for them to reunited with their families will be critical as they need relatives to care for their needs.

OPED: Commentary by Jason Tengco, Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Asian  Americans and Pacific Islanders

Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon used parole power expansively to destabilize the Cuban regime and grant status to most of the 621,403 applications received by Cuban asylum seekers fleeing the revolution in Cuba. President Kennedy and President Johnson also employed the parole power to parole over 15,000 Chinese nationals who fled Hong Kong in 1962, according to an Asian American Advancing Justice press release. 

AAAJ also said that following the Vietnam War, Presidents Ford and Carter also used executive parole to bring over 360,000 Indo-Chinese individuals from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to the United States when the number of available conditional entries was vastly exceeded.34 From 1972 until 1980, Soviet refugees also received parole when enough conditional entries were not available.35

Other Asian American communities joined the Filipino issue, as well as a score of lawmakers, rallying to this nonpartisan cause to fulfill the promise that was made by President Franklin Roosevelt to the 260,000 Filipinos who fought for the United States during WWII. Congress took that promise taken away in 1946 by the Rescission Acts.

              RELATED: WWII Filipino veterans still fighting for their rights

Alex Esclamado

Scores of congressmen sponsored bills to fulfill those promises for the Filipinos but found the legislative process an uphill battle. The late publisher of the  Philippine News, Alex Esclamado, made the issue a rallying cry in his attempts to unify the Filipino American communities divided by the partisan politics of the Philippines. It was a struggle all the way; dying in committee or not being able to gain enough support.

The Filipino veterans finally were granted citizenship in 1990 and benefits compensation  in 2009, but the bills did not include the veterans' families. The relatives had to go through the normal immigration channels. With an annual quota of 20,000 immigrants, the backlog for the Philippines was more than 20 years. 

As one of the editors of the San Francisco-based Philippine News, I rarely saw an issue go to print without an editorial, a column or a news story about the injustice meted out to the veterans. Esclamado's faith in America's legislative process and justice was unwavering and his staff was swept up in his belief.

Sometimes, it seemed like a hopeless cause but Esclamado never gave up. Appropriately, his favorite song was "To Dream The Impossible Dream," from the musical Man of La Mancha. 

The final dream of the aged veterans of spending the twilight of their lives surrounded by their families is finally in the realm of possibility, and it couldn't happen a moment too soon for the few thousand veterans still alive.  For hundreds of thousands of the Filipino veterans' compatriots, the delivery of President Roosevelt's promise have come too late.

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