Filipino veteran’s kin arrive in isles

As families of Filipino World War II veterans start to reunite on American soil under a special new immigration program, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said she hopes the Trump administration won’t hamper those efforts.

Hirono, a Democrat, met in her Honolulu office Thursday with the Milla clan — the first family in Hawaii to benefit from the Filipino World War II Veterans Parole Program, which Hirono helped launch last summer. It allows the families of those aging veterans or their surviving spouses to bypass the nation’s backlogged immigration system and live in the U.S. as their visa applications continue.

The program’s paperwork takes about six months to complete, Hirono said, so its first beneficiaries are starting to arrive across the United States.

Jeorge Milla, who hails from the Philippines and whose father served in the guerrilla forces during World War II, told Hirono that he arrived on Oahu earlier this month with his wife and two teenage daughters after his visa petition began 22 years ago.

Milla’s father, Jesus, died during that wait in 2006.

However, Milla’s mother, 93-year-old Anastacia Milla, still lives on Oahu. He said he was able to visit his mother only five times on a limited tourist visa during those 22 years. His family couldn’t accompany him on those visits because they couldn’t get the same visa, he added.

The new parole program allows them to stay here for at least three years while their visa application continues to proceed.

“I’m sorry that it has taken this long,” Hirono told family members Thursday. Hirono estimated there are about 5,000 veterans’ families eligible for the program.

“These families have been patiently waiting for decades. They have a strong desire to reunite,” Hirono later told reporters gathered at her office. “My hope is there will be many more happy occasions like this.”

About 260,000 Filipino soldiers fought in World War II with the U.S. and were promised citizenship as veterans, which was not granted until 1990. (Jesus and Anastacia Milla moved to the U.S. in 1994, according to the family.)

Naturalized veterans could petition for visas for family members, but the visa process has been prolonged by backlogs, such as an annual cap on the number of people allowed from each country.

During her time in Congress, Hirono repeatedly has introduced measures to reunite Filipino World War II veterans in the U.S. with their families from the Philippines, but nothing has been passed into law. She helped craft the parole program as an alternative to those bills through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency.

With President Donald Trump’s recent controversial approaches to immigration policy, Hirono said “there are legitimate concerns” about the program’s future.

“In this case, though, this has nothing to do with undocumented people,” Hirono added of the program. Thus, she said she’s hopeful Trump won’t alter it. She hasn’t discussed the matter with the new administration, Hirono added.

“We owe this to the Filipino World War II veterans who fought with us. These families need to be reunited. I think our country owes them that, and I hope that President Trump does not do anything to this particular program,” Hirono said Thursday.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Rob Shikina contributed to this story.