Mark Rabago
RNZ Pacific CNMI correspondent
A Republican
congressman has introduced legislation that would end
automatic United States citizenship for many people born in
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI),
Guam, and other US territories from 2027, drawing strong
opposition from a territorial rights advocacy
group.
The End Birthright Citizenship for Territories
Act, introduced by Virginia Republican rep Morgan Griffith,
would amend federal law so that people born in Puerto Rico,
Guam, the US Virgin Islands and the CNMIon or after 1
January 2027, would no longer automatically receive US
citizenship under current statutory provisions.
The
bill argues Congress has the authority to change citizenship
laws applying to the territories.
In a statement
announcing the bill, Griffith said the recent US Supreme
Court decision in Trump v Barbara “leaves the door open for
Congressional action on citizenship in the American
territories”.
“Just like Congress possesses the power
to grant the territories Constitutional rights in statute,
we have the power to take them away in statute,” Griffith
said.
The proposal has drawn criticism from Right to
Democracy, an advocacy organisation focused on US
territories.
“This dangerous and unconstitutional
legislation highlights the problem with the Insular Cases
and the idea that Congress has the power to simply turn
constitutional rights on and off at will in U.S.
territories,” Neil Weare, the organisation’s co-director,
said.
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“This is a concern we’ve been warning about for
a long time, and here it is in black and white.”
Weare
said the bill’s wording was broader than what he described
as Griffith’s stated aim of addressing so-called “birth
tourism”.
“The proposed amendments to federal statute
are sweeping, and could mean that anyone born in a U.S.
territory starting in 2027 would no longer be recognized as
a US citizen, indeed, may not be a citizen of anywhere,”
Weare said.
“While Rep Griffith says his legislative
intent is to focus on addressing so-called ‘birth tourism’,
the actual text of the legislative amendments does not
contain any limiting language and could deny citizenship to
anyone born in a territory moving forward.”
Another
Right to Democracy co-director Adi Martinez Roman said the
issue extended beyond politics.
“The question of
federal power over citizenship in US territories is not a
partisan or ideological issue – it is one of fundamental
rights in a democracy,” Martinez Roman said.
Martinez
Roman argued the proposal could also conflict with the
Northern Mariana Islands’ Covenant with the United
States.
“The legislation is also especially troubling
because it seeks to unilaterally amend the citizenship
provisions negotiated in the Northern Mariana Islands’
Covenant, which under Public Law 94-241 require ‘mutual
consent,’ to change,” Martinez Roman said.
“This is
just the kind of federal action the Covenant was negotiated
to prevent.”
According to Right to Democracy, the
proposal follows comments by US vice president JD Vance
after the Supreme Court’s Trump v Barbara decision, in which
he reportedly said limiting birthright citizenship in the
territories by executive action was “a great idea” and that
“we’re certainly looking at that.”
The bill has been
introduced in the House of Representatives but has not
become law. It would need approval from both chambers of
Congress and be signed by the president before taking
effect.
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