Modern Colonialism: Political Injustice in the American Territories
Over three million American citizens lack full Constitutional rights. Despite this egregious injustice, the American government uses these citizens’ money and land for American benefit. Does this not directly oppose the very principles America was supposedly founded upon? While many Americans would consider this situation unjust, most simply don’t know that it is happening since it concerns the misunderstood American territories. Only four years ago, almost half of America did not even know that residents of the most populous American territory, Puerto Rico, were American citizens. (New York Times) This poll was administered in 2017, Puerto Rico’s one hundredth year as a territory. This concerning ignorance may explain the notable national silence on the issue, but it does not explain why informed politicians continue to treat the territories’ residents as second-class citizens. The public must learn about the territories to be able to hold politicians accountable because the current treatment of the territories is completely unacceptable.
What exactly are the territories?
There are presently 14 American territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Wake Island, and Navassa Island. (World Atlas)
There are two categorizations for these territories: incorporated/unincorporated and organized/unorganized.
Incorporated territories are territories where the American Constitution fully applies. Palmyra Atoll, an island with no permanent residents, is the only incorporated territory. The rest are unincorporated, meaning “only select parts of the Constitution apply to them.” (World Atlas) This leaves the residents of the 13 unincorporated territories more vulnerable to exploitation.
Organized territories have limited political autonomy. They have a constitution and local government. All of the territories with a permanent population are organized: Puerto Rico, Guam, the North Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The only organized territory without a permanent population is American Samoa. The rest of the territories are unorganized, without any political autonomy or permanent population. This includes the aforementioned Palmyra Atoll whose only residents are “a small staff” and “the 15 or 20 researchers who come for a week or a month at a time.” (NPR)
What issues are they facing?
Since all of the inhabited territories are unprotected at the federal level by the Constitution, they face a number of political injustices. Residents of the territories can vote in presidential primaries, but not in actual presidential elections. (WP) Unlike the fifty states, the territories are each represented only by a single delegate in the House of Representatives. These delegates can “speak and vote in committees [...] introduce bills and resolutions and offer amendments and motions on the House floor, but they cannot vote on the House floor.” (WP) The territories are completely unrepresented in the Senate. This lack of representation allows the federal government to disregard the territories’ needs.
Despite the fact that they have no substantial federal representation, territory residents pay “billions in taxes to the federal government.” (Medium) While territory residents do not pay all of the exact same taxes as American citizens, most pay taxes for Social Security, Medicare, and other programs. (WP) This leaves the territory residents facing the same taxation-without-representation situation that spurred this nation’s founding.
Some funding from federal taxes goes to support social welfare programs, including healthcare, unemployment benefits, child welfare, and emergency assistance. A few of these federal programs are available to territory residents, but not all. For example, only Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are eligible for federal Unemployment Compensation. (Appendix B) The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program is only available to Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. American Samoa is technically eligible, but they do not participate. Territories may not participate in certain programs they are legally eligible for because there are obstacles to participating in these programs. For instance, the territory must “provide matching funds or meet other program requirements,” meaning that, even if a territory can technically use certain benefits, they may not be able to participate in the program if the local government cannot afford it. (Appendix B) Sometimes, federal funding for these programs isn’t sufficient, making them unhelpful. For example, Puerto Rico is the only territory currently participating in the federal foster care and adoption assistance program. But, they have historically received “limited or no funding for its program.” (Appendix B). Even certain Social Security benefits have been restricted. 24,000 disabled residents of Guam don’t have access to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) that they would be eligible for if they lived on the mainland. (Kelleher) Considering the fact that Guam’s residents pay Social Security taxes, it is ridiculous that they do not have access to the very program they are paying to support.
The United States government is creating the very same dynamic in its colonized territories that the English monarchy did for the American colonizers. One key difference, however, is that those protesting taxation without representation years ago had voluntarily left England to colonize land that wasn’t theirs. The people of the current American territories were involuntarily colonized by America.
These political injustices are exacerbated by the territories’ struggling economies. The residents of the territories have “suffered from some of the highest rates of unemployment, the lowest standards of living, and the lowest per capita income of all US citizens,” even before the infamous Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in 2017. (Lin) These people need the support of the federal social welfare programs their tax dollars are paying for, but they aren’t receiving it. This long-term economic downturn that the territories have faced has led to a mental health crisis with “alarmingly high rates of suicide attempts” as well as “mass migration of people away from their homelands.” (Lin)
The heavy military presence in Guam in recent years has contributed to this economic turmoil. Military bases take up about a third of the island. The military takeover wreaked havoc on local agriculture, pushing the residents to rely on imported food. Now, after taking much of the island’s resources, the military is one of the primary employers on the island, creating a dependence. The military presence in the territories also disproportionately endangers territory residents. People from the territories “have enlisted and died at one of the highest per capita rates relative to their peers from the States.” (Lin) Territory residents die in wars waged by leaders they did not elect. Even in peacetime, “large-scale long-term military exercises and munitions tests in the territories have left lasting environmental, psychological, and healthcare consequences.” (Lin) Residents of the mainland do not have to worry about the military testing bombs in their vicinity, but Puerto Ricans had to watch the government bomb one of their islands, Vieques, for sixty years, destroying its environmennt and leading to “the highest rates of illness in the Caribbean” for the island’s residents. (Lin) Furthermore, the military takeover of the Territories unfairly makes them targets. North Korea has specifically threatened to bomb Guam over conflict with America, despite the fact that the people of Guam have no say in the issue. (Lin) The reckless endangerment of the territories reflects the American government's colonial view of the territories as possessions . They simply do not see the territories’ residents as American citizens.
Future steps towards justice
Not many politicians or scholars have offered solutions to these injustices, as the territories are not in the present political foreground. Professor of Law at Temple University Tom C.W. Lin offers several approaches, including litigation, paths to statehood, or paths to independence. Each approach has varying levels of support from residents of the territories and American politicians. With its large population, Puerto Rico is the territory that could most plausibly become a state (its current population is greater than 21 of the current American states; WP). The majority of Puerto Ricans support the push for statehood. But bipartisan support for such a change seems unlikely to happen in the near future.
Before the American government shifts away from viewing the territories as colonies, significant change is unlikely. The Insular Cases, which serve as the “leading precedents for courts adjudicating issues related to the Territories,” refer to the territories as “possessions,” and the people of the territories as “savage [...] unfit to govern [...] half-civilized [...] ignorant and lawless brigands.” (Lin). If every call for political equality leads back to such unjust legislation, how could anything change? With this racist view of the territories built into our laws, it is clear why today’s politicians are not pushing for reform. They are merely maintaining the colonialist status quo.
While the situation is dire, it is not impossible to overcome. If the American public educates themselves on America’s colonial history and uses their political powers to push for change, it is possible to bring justice to the territories.
Sources:
“Appendix B: Social Welfare Programs in the Territories.” Committee On Ways and Means U.S. House of Representatives Green Book: Background Material and Data on the Programs within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means. 2012 https://greenbook-waysandmeans.house.gov/2012-green-book/appendix-b-social-welfare-prograMs-in-the-territories
Dropp, Kyle and Nyhan, Brendan. “Nearly Half of Americans Don’t Know Puerto Ricans Are Fellow Citizens.” The New York Times. 26 September 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/upshot/nearly-half-of-americans-dont-know-people-in-puerto-ricoans-are-fellow-citizens.html
Kelleher, Jennifer Sinco. “Judge sides with Guam resident in Social Security case.” ABC News. 22 June 2020. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/judge-sides-guam-resident-social-security-case-71393159
Lin, Tom C.W. “Americans, Almost and Forgotten.” California Law Review 107 (2019) https://www.californialawreview.org/print/americans-almost-and-forgotten/
“Living in Paradise on the Palmyra Atoll.” NPR. 25 October 2007. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15325412
Rock the Vote. “An Explainer on Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories.” Medium. https://rockthevote.medium.com/an-explainer-on-washington-d-c-puerto-rico-and-the-u-s-territories-3465c23a641d
Shvili, Jason “What Are The US Territories?” World Atlas. 30 November 2020. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-territories-of-the-united-states.html
Steckelberg, Aaron and Esteban, Chiqui. “More than 4 million Americans don’t have anyone to vote for them in Congress.” The Washington Post. 28 September 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/fair-representation/