The US Census Bureau thread

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Technically speaking, not quite true. Residents of American Samoa are not U.S. citizens, because it is the only inhabited territory which is unincorporated, meaning the U.S. Constitution does not apply there. There have been repeated cases regarding this (most recently in 2021) with district courts saying that American Samoans do not have birthright citizenship. There's a Supreme Court case regarding this currently pending.

That said, they are considered U.S. nationals, even though they aren't citizens. They can freely migrate to the U.S. and are effectively treated like they hold a green card.

Birthright citizenship is granted to U.S. territories through legislation, not the U.S. constitution.