Daniel Akaka: “My amendment has received a letter of support from the Asian American Justice Center. I ask unanimous consent that the…”

“My amendment has received a letter of support from the Asian American Justice Center. I ask unanimous consent that the full text of the letter from the Asian American Justice Center to be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Asian American Justice Center, Washington, DC, May 18, 2006. Dear Senator: The Asian American Justice Center writes in strong support of S. Amdt. 4029 to S. 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006. This important amendment, introduced by Senators Akaka and Inouye, would allow the sons and daughters of the naturalized Filipino veterans who fought for the United States during World War II to finally reunite with their aging parents in the United States. Approximately 200,000 Filipino soldiers fought for the U.S. during World War II. They were promised U.S. citizenship as a condition of their service to our country, but that promise was retroactively withdrawn in 1946. To address this injustice, Congress belated granted U.S. citizenship to these veterans as a part of the Immigration Act of 1990. However, it did not grant citizenship to the children of these veterans, thereby causing many of these families to be separated. A long immigration backlog developed hence these veterans petitioned for their sons and daughters to immigrate to the U.S.…”