The territorial leaders of the United States’ five inhabited island territories are calling on Congress to take action to address the many inequities that the territories face under decades of U.S. colonial rule.
At a Congressional hearing on February 1, representatives from the five territories voiced strong criticisms of U.S. colonialism, which to this day prevents these territories from acquiring independence and blocks them from becoming states. Territorial leaders called for equity in the social safety net, equal protection under the law, and the right to self-determination.
Territorial leaders called for equity in the social safety net, equal protection under the law, and the right to self-determination.
About 3.5 million people, overwhelmingly people of color, live in the five territories: Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Several representatives challenged the fundamental nature of the U.S. colonial relationship with the territories. Pedro R. Pierluisi, governor of Puerto Rico, called on Congress to create a process for the people of his nation to vote on statehood. Guam’s governor, Lou Leon Guerrero, blasted the United States for preventing her nation’s Indigenous people from being able to vote in a referendum on the future status of their homeland.
All of these representatives expressed support for President Joe Biden’s now derailed Build Back Better plan, which included some steps to address long-standing inequities in the colonies.
“For too long, the Americans living in the Insular Areas have been treated as foreign or other, as something less than American citizens,” said Albert Bryan, Jr., the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Congress has granted U.S. citizenship to the residents of four of the five territories. The exception is American Samoa, whose residents are classified as “U.S. nationals.”
All five territories have been prevented from becoming states by the Insular Cases, a series of Supreme Court cases dating back to the early twentieth century wherein judges made racist arguments about the people living in newly acquired U.S. territories to justify classifying the areas as “unincorporated”—both part of the United States and simultaneously separate from its legal rights and protections.
In one of those cases involving a dispute over whether commerce between Puerto Rico and the mainland United States should be considered interstate or international, Downes v. Bidwell, the high court determined that because Puerto Rico was “inhabited by alien races,” it would be impossible to govern them under the “Anglo-Saxon principles” of the U.S. Constitution.
The justices who decided the Insular Cases crafted a similar “separate but equal” doctrine in the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson case that for many years provided the legal basis for racial segregation in the Southern states.
On February 10, more than a dozen civil rights organizations sent a letter to the Department of Justice condemning the Insular Cases for their “shameful legacy” and calling on the U.S. government to reject them.
“The Biden-Harris Justice Department should be ashamed to continue relying on the racist Insular Cases to defend the perpetuation of a colonial framework in U.S. territories,” said Neil Weare, president of Equally American, an organization that is pursuing equal rights for the people of the territories.
The U.S. colonial framework relegates the inhabitants of the territories to a second-class status, despite Biden’s pledge that “there can be no second-class citizens in the United States of America.” Territorial residents do not have representatives in the Senate. Their delegates in the House of Representatives cannot vote on legislation. And U.S. citizens who reside in the territories cannot vote in presidential elections, despite the fact that the President can send them to war.
There are major disparities between the states and territories in social programs, such as Medicaid, food stamps, and Supplemental Security Income. Funding for Medicaid is capped in the territories. Not all territories receive the same benefits under the food stamp program. Most territories do not benefit from Supplemental Security Income.
“When you look at the fact that these are Black and brown people and that they are probably among the more poor Americans . . . it’s a slap in the face,” Governor Bryan said.
The Build Back Better plan would take steps to address these inequities. The bill would extend Supplemental Security Income to all territories, resolving a longstanding inequity that dates back to the 1970s. In addition, it would raise the funding caps for Medicaid, moving the territories toward parity with the states.
“We see a tremendous opportunity to advance real progression towards equal standards of living with the larger United States through the Build Back Better initiative,” said David Atalig, an official from the Northern Mariana Islands.
The push toward equity remains blocked, however, in part by U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, which held the February 1 hearing. He remained silent in the face of the many statements in support of the Build Back Better plan—which he opposes—particularly its expansion of the social safety net. On the day of the hearing, Manchin declared the bill “dead.”
Perhaps the hearing’s most dramatic moments came when several territorial leaders renewed their calls for self-determination.
The 'colonized people of Guam,' said Governor Guerrero, have been denied their right to self-determination for the past 120 years.
The “colonized people of Guam,” said Governor Guerrero, have been denied their right to self-determination for the past 120 years. “Our status as a non-self-governing territory of the United States is not a reflection of our desires as a people.”
Guerrero insisted that the people of Guam must be able to determine their fate. “On self-determination for the people of Guam, I ask you to pass a bill to advance a process to allow us to articulate our desired political status,” she said.
Puerto Rican Governor Pierluisi issued a similar demand, calling on Congress to create a process for the people of Puerto Rico to vote on the future status of their homeland. He expressed confidence that the majority of Puerto Ricans would vote for statehood, just as they did in a non-binding referendum in 2020.
“Congress must call for a vote on the political future of Puerto Rico and commit to implementing the will of the majority,” Pierluisi said. “That is what democracy is all about. It is time to act.”
Despite these clearly expressed sentiments, U.S. leaders have displayed little interest in granting the territories the right to self-determination. Recent deliberations in Washington, D.C., over the political future of Puerto Rico remain tied up in competing bills in Congress. Guam’s proposed plebiscite has been blocked by the federal courts on the grounds that it limits the vote to the Indigenous Chamorro people, who are now a minority on the island.
Undeterred, territorial leaders have grown increasingly bold in their criticisms of U.S. colonialism. While some territorial leaders push for self-determination, others emphasize their identity as Americans, arguing that the residents of the territories deserve the same rights as everyone else living in the United States.
“I am an American, just as you are,” Governor Bryan told the Senators. “My constituents are Americans, just as your constituents are. They should receive the same consideration and the same treatment from Congress and the rest of the federal government that their fellow citizens on the mainland do.”