The United States recognizes American Samoa, as it does other U.S. territories, as a “non-self-governing” territory that has a right to self-determination under international law. This right is not dependent on whether people in American Samoa are recognized as U.S. citizens or not. After all, people born in other U.S. territories are automatically recognized as U.S. citizens yet the United States still recognizes their right to self-determination. In fact, the federal government’s denial of citizenship to people born in American Samoa could itself be a violation of international law, since it makes them citizens of nowhere. 

 The legal question presented as a defense to Alaska’s criminal prosecution of American Samoans in Whittier is narrow: whether, so long as American Samoa is a U.S. territory, can Congress or the State Department label American Samoa as not “in the United States” for purposes of the constitutional right to birthright citizenship? This legal defense does not address, nor will it answer, any questions about American Samoa’s future political status -- that is a question that only the people of American Samoa can answer. 

American Samoa has been a part of the United States for over 125 years, something American Samoans celebrate each year during Flag Day. Unless the American Samoan people decide to end their political relationship with the United States - so that American Samoa is no longer “in the United States” – the question of citizenship is determined by the U.S. Constitution and the fact that the U.S. exercises sovereignty over the territories. The question of future political status remains up to the people of American Samoa, as it does in other U.S. territories whose residents are already recognized as U.S. citizens.

Right to Democracy and the American Samoans we represent fully support the right of American Samoans to determine their future political relationship with the United States through a process of self-determination.