 |
COURTESEY EQUALLY AMERICAN
John Fitisemanu wants birthright citizenship for American Samoans. |
A lawsuit filed Tuesday (March 28) against the U.S. State Department seeks birthright citizenship for residents of American Samoa under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Utah resident John Fitisemanu is the lead plaintiff on the lawsuit filed on behalf of American Samoans in Utah. Born in American Samoa, he has the status of a U.S. national.
Utah resident John Fitisemanu is the lead plaintiff on the lawsuit filed on behalf of American Samoans in Utah. Born in American Samoa, he has the status of a U.S. national.
He's been rejected for jobs that list U.S. citizenship as a requirement. Prospective employers "need me to show them proof that I am a U.S. citizen, which I am not." Around elections, "I sit quietly at my cubicle, and don't say a word, because I know I can't vote," he said. "It's kind of embarrassing."
In addition to the 50 states, the United States has five territories: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. While none of the five territories have all the rights granted to states, residents of the other four are given U.S. citizenship at birth. American Samoa is the only territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship.
Like residents of the other four territories, American Samoans pay taxes and are recognized as U.S. nationals. American Samoa also sends a non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. However, without full citizenship, they are not permitted to vote, run for political office, apply for certain government jobs, or to sponsor relatives immigrating to the United States.
Despite their status as U.S. nationals without full privileges of citizenship, the U.S. has no problem accepting them into the military. For their small numbers, the American Samoans have the one of the highest rates of enlistment into the armed forces.
This is Fitisemanu's second attempt to overturn what appears to be an unjust rule.A previous case he led stalled in 2016 when the Supreme Court declined to reconsider a ruling from a lower court in D.C., which found the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship didn't apply to American Samoa, and based its ruling on controversial racist legal precedents from the early 20th century after the Spanish-American War the U.S. acquired some former Spanish colonies including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Philippines.
Known as the "Insular Cases," the Supreme Court distinguished between "incorporated" and "unincorporated" territories. Incorporated territories such as Arizona and New Mexico and mostly settled by white people, were thought destined to be a permanent part of the U.S. Unincorporated territories such as American Samoa, weren't considered candidates for statehood, whose inhabitants were described as "alien races" and "uncivilized," and thus weren't granted full constitutional rights.
This is Fitisemanu's second attempt to overturn what appears to be an unjust rule.A previous case he led stalled in 2016 when the Supreme Court declined to reconsider a ruling from a lower court in D.C., which found the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship didn't apply to American Samoa, and based its ruling on controversial racist legal precedents from the early 20th century after the Spanish-American War the U.S. acquired some former Spanish colonies including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Philippines.
Known as the "Insular Cases," the Supreme Court distinguished between "incorporated" and "unincorporated" territories. Incorporated territories such as Arizona and New Mexico and mostly settled by white people, were thought destined to be a permanent part of the U.S. Unincorporated territories such as American Samoa, weren't considered candidates for statehood, whose inhabitants were described as "alien races" and "uncivilized," and thus weren't granted full constitutional rights.
RELATED: Why the court ruled against citizenship for American SamoansPresident Theodore Roosevelt was even more explicit in praising “the expansion of the peoples of white, or European, blood” into the lands of “mere savages.” It’s worth noting that President Trump has pointed to this period as the era “when we were great, when we were really starting to go robust."
"A lot of people are justifiably embarrassed by the Insular Cases because they really do capture an earlier imperial moment that is saturated in white supremacy," says Sanford Levinson, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas-Austin School of Law.
In subsequent cases, the courts have seen fit to grant citizenship to the other U.S. territories including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Northern Marianas but denied that same privilege to the 55,000 American Samoans.
"This is the holding pattern we've been in now for over a century," said Sam Erman, an expert in constitutional law and a professor at the University of Southern California. Still, Erman and many legal scholars agree that "American Samoans are clearly citizens under the 14th Amendment."
It didn't help Fitisemanu's earlier case that the local American Samoan government took a nuanced view over the issue, given concern about how aspects of Samoan life and culture "would be jeopardized if subjected to scrutiny under the 14th Amendment," according to court documents filed in 2014 by lawyers representing the government.
"If someone has a birth certificate showing they were born on U.S. soil, they shouldn't have to jump through any more hoops to be recognized as a U.S. citizen," said Neil Weare, president and founder of nonprofit Equally American, the attorney leading the lawsuit.
_________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment