Insular area


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. The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the Swan Islands, Hawaii, 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 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. 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.

History

The first insular areas that the United States occupied were Baker Island, Howland Island, and Navassa Island. Then Johnston Atoll and Jarvis Island would be claimed. After the Spanish–American War in 1898, several territories were taken that are still under U.S. sovereignty. Palmyra Atoll was annexed along with the Republic of Hawaii that same year. American Samoa was reclaimed the following year. In 1917, at the height of World War I, Denmark sold the Danish Virgin Islands to the United States.
The U.S. Navy annexed Kingman Reef in 1922. Spain had sold the Northern Mariana Islands to Germany in 1899. 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. The three countries maintain sovereignty with free association status with the United States, which provides them with defense assistance and economic resources.

Timeline

;August 28, 1867
;August 13, 1898
;February 4, 1899
;April 11, 1899
;April 12, 1900
;June 7, 1900
;April 1, 1901
;August 29, 1916
;March 2, 1917
;March 31, 1917
;May 17, 1932
;March 24, 1934
;November 15, 1935
;December 8, 1941
;February 3 - March 3, 1945
;August 1945
;July 4, 1946
;July 14, 1947
;August 5, 1947
;July 1, 1950
;July 25, 1952
;July 22, 1954
;July 1, 1967
;September 12, 1967
;January 1, 1978
;January 9, 1978
;October 21, 1986
;November 3, 1986
;December 22, 1990
;May 25, 1994
;October 1, 1994
;December 11, 2012
;December 22, 2022 : The U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of the Puerto Rico Status Act. The act sought to resolve Puerto Rico's status and its relationship to the United States through a binding plebiscite to be held in November 2023; however, the Senate never acted on the bill.
; April 20, 2023 : Puerto Rico Status Act re-introduced in U.S. House with the plebiscite to be held in November 2025.

Citizenship

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. 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.

Political representation

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.

Taxation

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, federal commodity taxes, Social Security taxes, etc. Individuals working for the federal government pay federal income taxes while all residents are required to pay federal payroll taxes. According to IRS Publication 570, income from other U.S. Pacific Ocean insular areas is fully taxable as income of United States residents.
Puerto Rico is inside the main domestic customs territory of the United States, but the other insular areas are outside it; tariff treatment varies.

Associated states

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.

Current insular areas by status

The following islands, or island groups, are considered insular areas:

Incorporated organized territories

''None''

Incorporated unorganized territory

One
  • Palmyra Atoll – U.S. Territory of Palmyra Island

    Unincorporated organized territories

Four

  • Unincorporated unorganized territories

One
Six
  • Baker Island
  • Howland Island
  • Jarvis Island
  • Johnston Atoll
  • Kingman Reef
Two
  • Navassa Island

  • Claimed territories

Two
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. 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.

Former insular areas