• Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Being a territory doesn’t give birthright citizenship though…

    So even if the US were able to just claim it as a territory, that wouldn’t mean anything for citizenship. The Constitution only applies to incorporated territories. The only incorporated US territory is the uninhabited Palmyra Atoll. PR, The US Virgin Islands, Guam, etc are all unincorporated territories. The Constitution doesn’t apply to them.

    The US territories that do have citizenship at birth are done so under federal law passed by Congress, not the 14th amendment. For example, people born in American Samoa are NOT US citizens. They are non-citizen US nationals. People born in PR, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands are citizens due to federal statutes passed.