Fono passes resolution supporting latest fed court ruling on birthright status

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A House Concurrent Resolution expressing support for the Federal Court of Appeals ruling in “respecting the right of the American Samoan people to retain our current statutory birthright status as U.S Nationals” was unanimously passed by faipule last week.

The Senate also passed a similar resolution two weeks ago where it was also unanimously passed.

The House concurrent resolution expresses the support of the Legislature and on behalf of the people of American Samoa, for the Federal Court of Appeals ruling in “respecting the right of the American Samoan people to retain our current statutory birthright status as U.S Nationals.”

The 10-page resolution, sponsored by Vice Speaker of the House, Fetu Fetui Jr, is referring to the June 15th ruling by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the Fitisemanu v. United States case, which reversed a lower court’s ruling on the issue of US citizenship for those who are born in American Samoa. Right now, those born in American Samoa, a US territory, are classified as US nationals, not US citizens.

The decision by faipule came after a brief hearing by the House Judiciary Committee, where the Attorney General, Fainu’ulelei Falefatu Ala’ilima-Utu, testified and expressed his legal opinion regarding the concurrent resolution. The hearing was led by chair, Rep. Vaetasi Tuumolimoli Saena Moliga.

Fetu informed the committee that the resolution was a recommendation from Congresswoman Uifa’atali Aumua Amata to show support for the government and people of American Samoa for the Court of Appeals’ reversal of a lower court ruling on the Fitisemanu vs United States case.

The Attorney General told the House committee that the Senate has already passed their version of the concurrent resolution and its purpose is to respect “the right of the American Samoan people to retain our current statutory birthright status as U.S Nationals.”

He pointed out that currently people of American Samoa “have a degree of self-determination and have a voice and a way of protecting our culture and way of life. This arrangement preserves our traditional Samoan way of life, or fa’a Samoa, including communal land ownership, cultural traditions like prayer curfews, and that most of our islands’ lands should stay in the hands of persons with Samoan ancestry.”

The sponsor of the House concurrent resolution agreed. Fetu said that unlike other US territories, he said that persons born in American Samoa are not US citizens, but rather U.S. nationals.

The lower court decision “was made without our people in American Samoa voting on the issue or exercising our right to self-determination,” Fetu said, noting that US nationals currently have a path to U.S. citizenship, an expedited path if they leave American Samoa and reside in any of the 50 states.

According to the resolution, the decision by the 10th Circuit confirms that, “the U.S. Congress properly has conferred statutory birthright U.S. nationality on persons born in American Samoa.”

It points out that, “if desired in the future we retain the right to petition Congress through local self-government and self-determination for a chance in our legal and political status so that of statutory birthright [in] U.S as defined by Congress in federal statutes citizenship.”

Furthermore, contrary to the “false narrative” of the Fitisemanu case, “our birthright U.S National status is not a form of ‘second class citizenship’ for American Samoans.”

The resolution states, in part, that the Deed of Cession in effect from April 17, 1900 provides that the U.S government “shall respect and protect the individual rights of all people dwelling in Tutuila to their lands and other property.”

And the Deed of Cession provides that “the enactment of legislation and the General Control shall remain firm with the United States of America.”

According to the resolution, the Legislature, in its Second Regular Session of 2021 “unanimously EXPRESSES concern that rule of law and informed democratic self-determination in American Samoa are undermined by disinformation narratives advanced by special interest lobbyists and lawyers for plaintiffs in Fitisemanu [case].”

Through the resolution, the Fono calls on the U.S based group, “Equally American”, and its affiliates to “cease disingenuously distorting in the federal courts and in national media the history and meaning of federal jurisprudence and statutory law defining the status and rights of Americans born in territories so that inequality and inequities inherent in the less than fully self-governing status of territories can be addressed through informed democratic self-determination on legally valid political status options, according to the diverse aspirations of the people in each territory”.

It request plaintiffs in the Fitisemanu case “to reconsider and elect to proceed no further, efforts to gain a federal court decision that threatens American Samoa’s right to self-determination by imposing U.S citizenship as currently conferred under the 14th Amendment in the States on persons born and living in American Samoa without” their consent.

And the Fono invites those representing special interests supporting the lawyers in the Fitisemanu case “to visit American Samoa to meet with our elected and traditional leaders, visit with the people in our villages, and if convinced that people want U.S citizenship to be conferred by the U.S Congress, work within the existing governmental processes to hold a referendum on the subject.”

In conclusion, the resolution says that the Fono on behalf of itself and the people of the territory support federal legislation offered by Uifa’atali to facilitate the process for a U.S. national, who “voluntarily seeks” to become a U.S. citizen.