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U.S. territory that is neither a U.S. state nor the District of Columbia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of a U.S. state or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sovereign states each with a Compact of Free Association with the United States.[1][2] The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the Swan Islands, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, as well as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands when it existed.
Three of the U.S. territories are in the Caribbean Sea, eleven are in the Pacific Ocean, and all three freely associated states are also in the Pacific. Two additional Caribbean territories are disputed and administered by Colombia.
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants to the United States Congress the responsibility of overseeing the territories.[a] A series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions known as the Insular Cases created a distinction between "incorporated territories", where the full Constitution of the United States applies, and "unincorporated territories", where only basic protections apply. The only current incorporated territory, Palmyra Atoll, is uninhabited.
A U.S. territory is considered "organized" when the U.S. Congress passes an organic act for it.[1] Three of the U.S. territories with a permanent non-military population have constitutions, and all five have locally elected territorial legislatures and executives, and some degree of political autonomy. Four of the five are "organized", but American Samoa is technically "unorganized" and subject to the direct jurisdiction of the Office of Insular Affairs.
The first insular areas that the United States occupied were Baker Island, Howland Island and Navassa Island (1857) then Johnston Atoll and Jarvis Island (both in 1858) would be claimed. After the Spanish–American War in 1898, several territories were taken that are still under U.S. sovereignty (Puerto Rico and Guam, both in 1898).[3] Palmyra Atoll was annexed along with the Republic of Hawaii (formerly a Kingdom) that same year. American Samoa was reclaimed the following year (1899). In 1917, at the height of World War I, Denmark sold the Danish Virgin Islands to the United States.[4]
The U.S. Navy annexed Kingman Reef in 1922. Spain had sold the Northern Mariana Islands to Germany in 1899.[5] The islands passed to Japan, which in turn lost them to the United States in 1945 after the end of World War II.
The Marshall Islands became self-governing in 1979 and fully independent along with the Federated States of Micronesia in 1986. Palau achieved independence in 1994.[6] The three countries maintain sovereignty with free association status with the United States, which provides them with defense assistance and economic resources.
Congress has extended citizenship rights by birth to all inhabited territories except American Samoa, and these citizens may vote and run for office in any U.S. jurisdiction in which they are residents. The people of American Samoa are U.S. nationals by place of birth, or they are U.S. citizens by parentage, or naturalization after residing in a State for three months.[19] Nationals are free to move around and seek employment within the United States without immigration restrictions, but cannot vote or hold office outside American Samoa.[20]
Each of the five inhabited areas: Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands, has a non-voting member in the United States House of Representatives.
Residents of the five major populated insular areas do not pay U.S. federal income taxes but are required to pay other U.S. federal taxes such as import and export taxes,[21][22] federal commodity taxes,[23] Social Security taxes, etc. Individuals working for the federal government pay federal income taxes while all residents are required to pay federal payroll taxes (Social Security[24] and Medicare). According to IRS Publication 570, income from other U.S. Pacific Ocean insular areas (Howland, Baker, Jarvis, Johnston, Midway, Palmyra, and Wake Islands, and Kingman Reef) is fully taxable as income of United States residents.[25]
Puerto Rico is inside the main domestic customs territory of the United States, but the other insular areas are outside it; tariff treatment varies (see Foreign trade of the United States § Customs territory).
The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Code also use the term "insular area" to refer not only to territories under the sovereignty of the United States, but also those independent nations that have signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States. While these nations participate in many otherwise domestic programs, and full responsibility for their military defense rests with the United States, they are legally distinct from the United States and their inhabitants are neither U.S. citizens nor nationals.[1]
The following islands, or island groups, are considered insular areas:
(None)
One (uninhabited)
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Four (inhabited)
Guam (organized under the Guam Organic Act of 1950)
Northern Mariana Islands (Commonwealth, organized under the 1975 Covenant)
Puerto Rico (Commonwealth, organized under the 1900 Foraker Act)
U.S. Virgin Islands (organized under the 1954 Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands)
One (inhabited)
American Samoa (self-governing even though officially unorganized and under the authority of the U.S. Department of the Interior)Six (uninhabited)
Midway Atoll (administered as a National Wildlife Refuge)Two (uninhabited, disputed)
Wake Island (administered by the U.S. Air Force; claimed by the Marshall Islands)Two (uninhabited, disputed)
Three sovereign UN member states which were all formerly in the U.S. administered United Nations Trust Territory and are currently in free association with the United States. The U.S. provides national defense, funding, and access to social services.
After achieving independence from the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, these states are no longer under U.S. sovereignty and thus not considered part of the United States.[26] Some programs in these states are administered by the U.S. Office of Insular Affairs, along with other federal entities such as the Department of Defense.
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands: U.N. trust territory administered by the U.S.; included the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Philippines: military government, 1899–1902; insular government, 1902–1935; commonwealth government, 1935–1942 and 1945–1946 (islands under Japanese occupation, 1942–1945 and puppet state, 1943–1945); granted independence on July 4, 1946, by the Treaty of Manila. Puerto Rico: military government, 1899–1900; insular government, 1900–1952; became a commonwealth on July 25, 1952.[1] Guam: naval government, 1899–1941 and 1944–50 (island under Japanese occupation, 1941–1944); territory organized and civil government established by the Guam Organic Act of 1950.
Hawaii: republican government, 1898–1900; territorial government, 1900–1959; became the State of Hawaii and the incorporated, unorganized territory of Palmyra Atoll on August 21, 1959.[27][28]Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
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