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Federal Court Orders Government to Recognize American Samoans as US Citizens
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</h3><h4><i>by <a href=”http://discuss.ilw.com/articles/articles/392308-article-federal-court-orders-government-to-recognize-american-samoans-as-us-citizens-by-aaron-reichlin-melnick#bio”>
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
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<div class=”at-above-post addthis_tool” data-url=”http://immigrationimpact.com/2019/12/18/american-samoans-us-citizens-court-decision/”></div><p>In a landmark decision last week, a federal court in Utah ordered the U.S. government to extend birthright citizenship to people born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa. In a lengthy decision, Judge Clark Waddoups declared that his decision was “required by the mandate of the Fourteenth Amendment as construed and applied by Supreme Court precedent.”</p>
<p><a href=”https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6574708-Fitisemanu.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Judge Waddoups ordered</a> the State Department to provide passports to the American Samoan plaintiffs, indicating they are full U.S. citizens. However, no change will occur immediately, as Judge Waddoups <a href=”https://www.deseret.com/utah/2019/12/13/21021058/judge-citizenship-american-samoa-ruling” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>put his decision on hold</a> while the government appeals.</p>
<p>American Samoa is an unincorporated U.S. territory located in the South Pacific Ocean. Individuals born there don’t have any other claim to U.S. citizenship. They are currently considered “U.S. nationals” and are ineligible to vote in federal elections or serve in jobs reserved only for American citizens. Individuals born in other U.S. territories like Puerto Rico and Guam were previously granted birthright citizenship through acts of Congress.</p>
<p>The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to any individual who is “born or naturalized in the United States.” Since 1898, the Supreme Court has interpreted the amendment to guarantee citizenship to any person born “in the United States.”</p>
<p>Seizing on this language, Judge Waddoups reasoned that American Samoa was undoubtedly “in the United States.” Anyone born in American Samoa is consequently a U.S. citizen.</p>
<p>The American Samoa government has <a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/us/american-samoa-us-citizenship.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>previously opposed receiving birthright citizenship</a>. There is a fear it could undermine “traditional culture and religious practices.”</p>
<p>Some American Samoans expressed concern about last week’s ruling. <a href=”https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/why-some-american-samoans-don-t-want-u-s-citizenship-n1103256″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>One person told NBC News</a> that he worried the decision would eventually lead to the elimination of the territory’s “indigenous political system and land rights.”</p>
<p>The plaintiffs in this case were American Samoans who had moved from the island to Utah, where they faced employment discrimination and the inability to vote, unlike other people born in the United States.</p>
<p>The decision also sets up a potential path for questions of birthright citizenship to make it to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>In 2015, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals <a href=”https://www.justsecurity.org/23519/d-c-circuit-rejects-birthright-citizenship-american-samoans/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>reached the opposite conclusion</a> from that of Judge Waddoups, determining that the phrase “in the United States” did not include “unincorporated territories” like American Samoa.</p>
<p>As the government has already indicated that it plans to appeal the current case out of Utah, the case will go to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Should the Tenth Circuit side with the lower court decision and rule that American Samoans qualify for birthright citizenship, it would create a split that could be taken up by the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>It’s unlikely that any Supreme Court decision on this issue would overturn birthright citizenship. But depending on how a decision is written, it could undermine the 120-year-old consensus that every single person born in the United States is a citizen of the United States.</p>
<p>The Immigration Reform Law Institute, an organization <a href=”https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/anti-immigrant” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>deemed a 2018 anti-immigrant hate group</a> by the Southern Poverty Law Center, <a href=”https://www.samoanews.com/local-news/law-institute-seeks-file-brief-citizenship-lawsuit” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>filed a brief</a> with Judge Waddoups arguing that the case should be used to reinterpret birthright citizenship.</p>
<p>The fact that we have to ask whether people born in U.S. territories deserve U.S. citizenship is telling. It demonstrates that America is still grappling with questions of colonialism.</p>
<p>Much of immigration law, too, rests on creaky legal precedent rooted in a time in our past where entire races were deemed unsuitable to be Americans. And until we come to terms with our past, these questions will keep coming up.</p>
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<p>This post originally appeared on <a href=”http://immigrationimpact.com/2019/12/11/immigrants-with-criminal-records-in-ice-detention/#.XfJwL-hKiUk” target=”_blank”>Immigration Impact</a>. Reprinted with permission.</p>
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<b>Aaron Reichlin-Melnick</b> is a Policy Analyst at the American Immigration Council, where he works primarily on immigration court issues and the intersection of immigration law and policy. He previously worked as a Staff Attorney at the Council, working on impact litigation, Freedom of Information Act litigations, and practice advisories. Prior to joining the Council, he was an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow placed as a Staff Attorney at the Immigration Law Unit of The Legal Aid Society in New York City, representing immigrants placed in removal proceedings because of a prior criminal conviction. Aaron holds a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in Politics and East Asian Studies from Brandeis University.
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