No welcome for Filipino vets

Business

By David North

A CERTAIN type of potential tourist, regarded favorably by the US Supreme Court, has upset some Chamorro organisations.

The visitors would be elderly Filipino males coming to Guam to apply for US citizenship on the grounds that they fought with US forces in the Philippines during World War 11.

Congress decided right after World War II to grant citizenship to aliens who fought with the US in the war. Most of the vets had- enlisted formally in the US armed forces, most applied on the Mainland, and their cases were handled quickly by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

But most Filipinos did not fall into this category. They had served with guerilla units, or with more formal entities, but

their records were lost as the Japanese crushed the American Army on Bataan.

INS, facing tough decisions about scores of thousands of potential applicants,

defined eligibility narrowly, and fought

the matter in court literally for decades.

Recently INS lost when the Supreme Court decided to extend citizenship to those who had survived; a) the war, and b) the last 46 years.

INS was told to start processing naturalisation applications by the Su preme Court, but administrative details were left to them. INS has resisted the Filipino vets’ program for nearly half a century and has no interest in handling applications in the Philippines. It would maximise the number of applicants, and it would have to least quadruple the size of its tiny staff there.

The closest full-scale INS office is in Agana, Guam. Any new or old US citizen, or permanent resident alien can live in Guam. The Chamorro nationalists are worried that Mainland control of immigration may make them a minority in their own land. INS has shown some willingness to adjust regulations to give Guam some decision-making powers, but has resisted statutory changes.

If the US Government decided to process the Filipino vet’s applications on Guam many might stay, the activitists concluded. The average age of applicants is probably 70 so naturalisation will be instant (no five years waiting) and the

newly-naturalised, full-fledged US citi

zens will be able to petition INS immediately to bring spouses, then children and grandchildren into the US.

The Chamorro organisations suspect the immigrants’ favorite part of the US will be Guam, so they have objected. Tne resolution should be interesting. □