Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Threats to birthright citizenship in U.S. territories continue to escalate following President Trump’s Executive Order 14418 and the End Birthright Citizenship for Territories Act. A new report issued by the conservative think-tank Advancing American Freedom and the Edwin Meese III Institute states that Congress “can and should” take action “to limit U.S. citizenship” in U.S. territories. 

The report, titled Federal Policy Responses to the Supreme Court’s Birthright Citizenship Decision, states that Congress maintains this power after the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara because of the Insular Cases and the idea that in “unincorporated territories, the Constitution does not fully apply,” even as “the United States exerts sovereignty” over these communities. 

The report concludes that because of the Insular Cases “the federal government has never considered persons born within the unincorporated territories to be U.S. citizens by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment.” 

“The idea that Congress has the power to turn citizenship on and off in U.S. territories as it sees fit is a dangerous one that contradicts the clear command of the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Barbara,” said Neil Weare, Co-Director of Right to Democracy, which filed an amicus brief in Trump v. Barbara on behalf of 21 current and former elected officials from all five U.S. territories. 

“These ongoing threats to citizenship are just the latest example of how the colonial legal framework established by the Insular Cases can be used to justify the exercise of federal power over communities that have long been denied political rights and self-determination.”

The report criticizes federal statutes that “bestow U.S. citizenship on virtually all children born within the relevant unincorporated territories, irrespective of the immigration status of the child’s parents,” arguing those statutes “should be amended” so that only “those persons born in the territories where at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident” would be recognized as U.S. citizens.

As evidence of what it calls “the problems of universal birthright citizenship,” the report cites “30,000 Dominican nationals” it claims “illegally live in Puerto Rico,” and the Northern Mariana Islands, which it calls “a particularly alluring location for birth tourists.”

“People who think these attempts are just about limiting the rights of particular groups of immigrants should really look closer at what is going on. These proposals uphold the legitimacy of a colonial power grounded in racism that can be used any time to deny rights to all of us,” said Adi Martínez Román, Co-Director of Right to Democracy. “Until the Insular Cases doctrine is reckoned with and overturned, the territories will remain laboratories of ‘un-democracy’ to test how both the President and Congress can expand their unilateral powers over people’s bodies and lives.”

Zeno Deleon Guerrero, Jr., Right to Democracy’s Solidarity Director, added, “It is very telling how the report ignores that in the NMI’s Covenant with the United States, citizenship cannot be changed unilaterally by Congress, but requires mutual consent. This raises questions about whether Congress will respect the democratic commitments made in that negotiated agreement.”

“It is also insulting that the report calls Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa ‘possessions’ of the United States. People are not possessions. That was what the Civil War and the Fourteenth Amendment were supposed to end. It is also what led the U.S. to make self-determination and decolonization key elements of the United Nations Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” added Weare.

Right to Democracy has developed a Frequently Asked Questions page that addresses common concerns that have been raised about the Trump Executive Order and the End Birthright Citizenship for Territories Act. It is also organizing a petition calling on “Congress, the President, and the Courts to reject the idea that the federal government has the power to deny U.S. citizenship to anyone simply because they were born in a U.S. territory.” And it has created an online survey to collect community feedback on whether Congress should have the power to limit citizenship in U.S. territories.  

Right to Democracy also represents Michael Pese and Tupe Smith, who each are facing up to 5-10 years in jail in Alaska as a result of federal statutes and policies that deny them recognition as U.S. citizens despite being born in American Samoa, a U.S. territory for over 125 years. 

Right to Democracy brings together people across the political status spectrum to confront the undemocratic colonial framework governing the U.S. territories and advance a future grounded in democracy, equity, and self-determination.