Insular areas of the United States
Insular areas of the United States
An insular area is a United States territory that is neither a part of one of the fifty states nor a part of the District of Columbia, the nation's federal district.
Because those insular areas that are inhabited are unincorporated territories, their native-born inhabitants are not constitutionally entitled to United States citizenship under the Citizenship Clause. However, Congress has extended citizenship rights to all inhabited territories with the exception of American Samoa, and these citizens may vote and run for office in any U.S. jurisdiction in which they are resident. Residents of American Samoa are U.S. nationals, but not U.S. citizens; they are free to move around and seek employment within the whole United States without immigration restrictions, but cannot vote or hold office outside of American Samoa.
Classification of current U.S. territories
Incorporated organized territories
- none since 1959
Incorporated unorganized territories
- Palmyra Atoll is privately owned by the Nature Conservancy and administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is an archipelago of about 50 small islands about 1.56 square miles (4 km²) in area that lies about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south of Honolulu. The atoll was acquired by the United States in the 1898 annexation of the Republic of Hawaii. When the Territory of Hawaii was incorporated on April 30, 1900, Palmyra Atoll was incorporated as part of that territory. However, when Hawaii became a state in 1959, Palmyra Atoll was explicitly separated from the state, remaining an incorporated territory but receiving no new organized government.
Unincorporated organized territories
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Northern Mariana Islands (commonwealth) -
Puerto Rico (commonwealth) -
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Unincorporated unorganized territories
American Samoa, technically unorganized, but self-governing under a constitution last revised in 1967
Bajo Nuevo Bank, uninhabited and not administered by the United States- Baker Island, uninhabited
- Howland Island, uninhabited
- Jarvis Island, uninhabited
- Johnston Atoll, uninhabited
- Kingman Reef, uninhabited
- Midway Islands, no indigenous inhabitants, currently included in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
- Navassa Island, uninhabited (claimed by Haiti)
- Serranilla Bank, uninhabited and not administered by the United States
- Wake Atoll consisting of Peale, Wake and Wilkes Islands[1], no indigenous inhabitants, only contractor personnel (claimed by the Marshall Islands)
References[edit]
- ↑ DOI Office of Internal Affairs http://www.doi.gov/oia/Islandpages/wakepage.htm archive copy at the Wayback Machine