This amendment contains the language of S. 621, the Wartime Treatment Study Act, a bill I have introduced with my friend from Iowa, Senator Grassley.

This amendment would create two fact-finding commissions: one commission to review the U.S. Government's treatment of German Americans, Italian Americans, and European Latin Americans during World War II, and another commission to review the U.S. Government's treatment of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution during World War II.

I am very pleased that my distinguished colleagues, Senator Lieberman and Senator Inouye, have agreed to cosponsor this amendment. They are also cosponsors of my bill, and I appreciate their continued support for this important initiative.

This amendment would help us to learn more about how, during World War II, recent immigrants and refugees were treated. It is an appropriate and relevant amendment to this immigration bill.

I would have preferred to have moved this bill on its own. Senator Grassley and I have introduced the Wartime Treatment Study Act in the last four Congresses, and the Judiciary Committee has reported it favorably each time, including just last month. It has been cleared for adoption by unanimous consent by my Democratic colleagues. But I am forced to offer this as an amendment because the Wartime Treatment Study Act has not cleared the Republican side in this Congress or any of the last three Congresses. It is time for the Senate to pass this bill.

During World War II, the United States fought a courageous battle against the spread of Nazism and fascism. Nazi Germany was engaged in the horrific persecution and genocide of Jews. By the end of the war, 6 million Jews had perished at the hands of Nazi Germany.

The Allied victory in the Second World War was an American triumph, a triumph for freedom, justice, and human rights. The courage displayed by so many Americans, of all ethnic origins, should be a source of great pride for all of us. But we should not let that justifiable pride in our Nation's triumph blind us to the treatment of some Americans by their own Government.

Sadly, as so many brave Americans fought against enemies in Europe and the Pacific, the U.S. Government was curtailing the freedom of some of its own people here, at home. While it is, of course, the right of every Nation to protect itself during wartime, the U.S. Government can and should respect the basic freedoms that so many Americans have given their lives to defend.

Many Americans are aware that during World War II, under the authority of Executive Order 9066 and the Alien Enemies Act, the U.S. Government forced more than 100,000 ethnic Japanese from their homes and ultimately into relocation and internment camps. Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes, their livelihoods, and their communities. They were held behind barbed wire and military guard by their own Government.

Through the work of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians created by Congress in 1980, this unfortunate episode in our history finally received the official acknowledgement and condemnation it deserved.

Congress and the U.S. Government did the right thing by recognizing and apologizing for the mistreatment of Japanese Americans during World War II. But our work in this area is not done. That same respect has not been shown to the many German Americans, Italian Americans, and European Latin Americans who were taken from their homes, subjected to curfews, limited in their travel, deprived of their personal property, and, in the worst cases, placed in internment camps.

Most Americans are probably unaware that during World War II, the U.S. Government designated more than 600,000 Italian-born and 300,000 German -born U.S. resident aliens and their families as ``enemy aliens.'' Approximately 11,000 ethnic Germans, 3,200 ethnic Italians, and scores of Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians, or other European Americans living in America were taken from their homes and placed in internment camps. Some even remained interned for up to 3 years after the war ended. Unknown numbers of German Americans, Italian Americans, and other European Americans had their property confiscated or their travel restricted, or lived under curfews.

This amendment would not--would not--grant reparations to victims. It would simply create a commission to review the facts and circumstances of the U.S. Government's treatment of German Americans, Italian Americans, and other European Americans during World War II.

Now, a second commission created by this amendment would review the treatment by the U.S. Government of Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi persecution and genocide and trying to come to the United States. German and Austrian Jews applied for visas, but the United States severely limited their entry due to strict immigration policies--policies that many believed were motivated by fear that our enemies would send spies under the guise of refugees and by the unfortunate antiforeigner, anti-Semitic attitudes that were sadly all too common at that time.

It is time for the country to review the facts and determine how our immigration policies failed to provide adequate safe harbor to Jewish refugees fleeing the persecution of Nazi Germany. It is a horrible truth that the United States turned away thousands of Jewish refugees, delivering many to their deaths at the hands of the Nazi regime we were fighting.

It is so urgent that we pass this legislation. We cannot wait any longer. The injustices to European Americans and Jewish refugees occurred more than 50 years ago. The people who were affected by these policies are dying.

In fact, one of them died earlier this month. Max Ebel was one of the thousands of German Americans who were interned during World War II in the United States. He died on May 3, 2007. His death brings me great sadness.

Max Ebel was only 17 when he came to America in 1937. He fled Germany after he was assaulted for refusing to join the Hitler Youth. When he came to the United States, he lived with his father in Massachusetts. He learned English. He joined the Boy Scouts. He completed high school. When the war broke out, he registered for the draft.

Nonetheless, in 1942, this new American was arrested by the FBI and interned under the Alien Enemies Act because of his German ancestry. He spent the next 18 months in a series of detention facilities and internment camps and ultimately was transferred to a camp in Fort Lincoln, ND, where despite the way he had been treated, he found a way to help the war effort. He volunteered for a government work detail and spent a North Dakota winter laying new railroad track on the Northern Pacific Rail Line. Max Ebel's crew boss saw how hard he worked and petitioned for his release.

Finally, in April of 1944, the Government let him go home. Despite everything that had happened, he remained loyal to his new country and became a citizen in 1953. A few years ago he told a journalist:

I was an American right from the beginning, and I always will be.

Max Ebel's death is a loss not only to his family and friends but also to our country.

But losing Max Ebel does more than bring me sadness; it also makes me a bit angry. It makes me angry because he did not live to see the day that Congress recognized what he went through: his internment at the hands of his newfound country.

I have been trying for years to pass this legislation creating a commission to study what happened to Max Ebel and to other German Americans and other European Americans and to Jewish refugees during World War II. I am gravely disappointed that Max Ebel and many others affected by these policies will not be here to see that legislation become law.

Americans must learn from these tragedies now, before there is no one left. We cannot put this off any longer. These people have suffered long enough without official, independent study of what happened to them and without knowing this Nation recognizes their sacrifice and resolves to learn from the mistakes of the past that caused them so much pain.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board put it, Congress must move forward with this legislation:

Lest the passage of time deprive more Americans of the justice that they deserve.

Let me again repeat that this amendment does not call for reparations. All it does is ensure that the public has a full accounting of what happened. We should be proud of our victory over Nazism, as I am. But we should not let that pride cause us to overlook what happened to some Americans and refugees during World War II. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Wartime Treatment Study Act that is an amendment to this immigration legislation, and I hope the managers of the bill can accept it.