The island of Guam is about 30 miles ( 48.2 kilometers ) long and maybe only 12 knot ( 19.3 kilometers ) across at its all-inclusive power point . A tiny island like that , admittedly , is well-heeled to lose vision of way out in thePacific , some 3,800 nautical mile ( 6,115 kilometers ) due west of Honolulu . Who knows what ’s going on there ?
Yet something no one should be confused aboutconcerns Guam ’s allegiances . Due to its naming as a U.S. district and its position on the other side of the external day of the month line , Guam boasts as its semi - prescribed slogan , " Where America ’s Day Begins . " Thousands of U.S. troops are stationed there . Its roughly160,000 residentsare U.S. citizens . Michael San Nicolasrepresents the island in Congress .
Guam may not be the America that many think of when they study Old Glory , baseball and unchained consumerism . But make no mistake : Guam is American . It might be proper to recognize those on Guam , and the other for good populated U.S. territories in the Pacific and Caribbean , as full - on Americans .
Rather than , say , foreigners . Or some breakaway grouping that the Mother Nation has to step on to assure .
Rather than , you experience , the way England handle its Americancoloniesa pair of centuries ago .
" America has a colonies problem , " says attorney Neil Weare , the President of the United States and laminitis ofEqually American , a pro - territories rights group . " A few years ago , I would not have used the Holy Scripture settlement to describe the relationship [ between the U.S. and its territories ] . But I think over the last year , with the focus on racial justness … the parole colony now , I imagine people do n’t flutter an oculus . It just describe the relationship now more than ever . "
A U.S. Territory Primer
America has a long history with dominion . The Northwest Territory , the Southwest Territory , theOregon Territory , the Indiana Territory , Alabama , Arkansaw , Louisiana … virtually every land now in the union began its American adventure as at least part of a territory or two , nomenclature aside . Even before the Declaration of Independence , what were the original " colonies " if not " territories " of England ?
As the United States gobbled its way across North America in pastime of itsManifest Destiny , every former territorial dominion was either mould into a country or a few of them . In 1959 , Alaska and Hawaii both went from territories to star topology on the flag .
And there thing intercept .
More than 60 twelvemonth later , the U.S. still has five permanently populated soil sitting in various states of American - ness , none on a degraded caterpillar tread to statehood . A nimble look :
American Samoa : Acquired in an 1899 treaty with Germany , American Samoais consider a territory that is both unincorporated ( which means thatonly parts of the U.S. Constitution apply ) and unorganized ( which means thatCongress has n’t reenact a set of practice of law , like a Bill of Rights , specifically for that dominion ) . It differ from the other soil on this tilt in one major way : the great unwashed born in American Samoa are deal U.S. nationals , not U.S. citizens .
Generally , all citizen are national , but subject are not citizens . Nationals " owe allegiance " to the U.S. , and can be granted a U.S. passport , but do not portion out many advantage of citizen . queerly , and constitutionally questionable , U.S. citizens in the 50 res publica and D.C. have more right than U.S. citizens from some of the district below … a major bone of contention for the people on this list .
The Northern Mariana Islands : Once part of the U.N. Trust Territory of the Pacific ( TTPI ) , theNorthern Marianas(Guam is the southernmost island in the archipelago ) are now considered a " commonwealth in political union with and under the sovereignty " of the U.S. About 90 percent of the population ( about 51,000 total ) lives on the island ofSaipan . Commonwealths — the Northern Marianas and Puerto Rico — are generally study to have a " more highly developed relationship " with the U.S. than other territories . The people of the Marianas are U.S. citizens by birth or fall .
Puerto Rico : Spain cede controller of the island ofPuerto Ricoto the U.S. in 1899 . The universe far outpaces that of the other territories ; it ’s about 3.1 million , 2.4 million of that is in San Juan . Puerto Rico is considered an unincorporated organized territory of the U.S. , with commonwealth status . citizen of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by giving birth or descent .
U.S. Virgin Islands : buy for $ 25 million in 1917 from Denmark , theU.S. Virgin Islandsare consider an unincorporated unionized territory of the U.S. The universe , estimated at 105,000 , is about 76 per centum pitch-black . Its economy extend on , among other industries , touristry , watch making and rummy distilling . Its people are U.S. citizens by birth or descent .
Guam : Taken from Spain by the U.S. in 1898 during the Spanish - American War , Guamwas bewitch by the Japanese for three years in World War II . The U.S. unloosen the island in 1944 . It ’s been considered an unincorporated unionized territory of the U.S. since 1950 . The U.S. military basis are decisive in the Pacific theater . masses born on Guam , and their descendant , are U.S. citizen .
The Fight for Equality
The current state of America ’s territories could best be described as separate and inadequate .
Territories bear one thousand million of dollars in Union taxes ( though , generally , not through personal income taxes ) . Some 20,000 mass from the territories serve in the U.S. military . American Samoa has more military enlistments , per capita , than any res publica in the Union .
But whether the people who live there are citizen ( as they are in every territorial dominion but American Samoa ) or nationals ( as they are in American Samoa ) , they do n’t get to vote for U.S. president . They are represented in the U.S. House of Representatives , but with a nonvoting representative . There are no territorial representatives in the U.S. Senate .
" More than 3.5 million Americans are deny the right field to vote in presidential elections because they hold out in one of five U.S. territories . ,“Stacey Plaskett , the U.S. Virgin Islands ' delegate to Congress , write inThe Atlantic . " That number is equivalent to the population of the five smallest states aggregate . "
It ’s more than just being able to vote for President of the United States every four years , though .
" We pay billions of dollars in federal revenue enhancement , and yet house physician of U.S. territories are denied admittance to important federal support . Otherwise eligible citizen in the territory are denied Supplemental Security Income , leave behind our most vulnerable seniors and citizenry with handicap to fend for themselves,“Plaskett wrote . " Union programme , including Medicaid , the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , the kid tax credit , and the Earned Income Tax Credit , are either capped or deny completely . "
Says Weare : " It ’s knotty for who we are as a land . "
Weare ’s group , Equally American , thrust for equality for the hoi polloi of the district ; equal representation in Congress , adequate citizenship with the residual of America , and the equal right guaranteed to Americans by the Constitution . The group is supportingseveral sound challengesto perhaps the biggest obstruction confront territorial rights , a series of six Supreme Court decisions in 1901 that has allowed the U.S. citizens ( and subject ) of American territory to be treated differently from other U.S. citizens .
Those decisions , have it off as theInsular typeface , are considered racist by many today . That ’s specially interest to the territories , where more than 98 pct of the citizenry are racial or ethnic minorities .
Here ’s an excerpt from one of the 1901 decisions that set up the current fate of the territory , write by then - Supreme Court Justice Henry Billings Brown , who also wrote the majority opinion in the controversial disjoined - but - adequate casePlessy v. Fergusondecision five years earlier :
More than 100 years have pass since those decisions , and the territorial dominion still ride , neither here nor there . The U.S. provides much to them , but the dominion provide the U.S. with much , too .
All Weare and others are need is that the multitude there be treat like all Americans .
" They ’re just so marginalized in the American mindset , " Weare says . " But we ’ve had these place for a really retentive clip now . And it ’s time to grapple with that and do something about it . Whether that ’s statehood , or whether that ’s independency , or whether that ’s a constitutional amendment , there are dissimilar way of life to solving that problem . But until we kind of come to grips with that [ colonies trouble ] , it ’s really hard to find out the political will to address and figure out these issues . "
