Interior Secretary Doug Burgum Asked About Extending Birthright Citizenship To Freely Associated States

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing last week, Rep. Pablo Hernández Rivera (D-PR) proposed expanding birthright citizenship to the people of the Freely Associated States.

Transcript

00:00The gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes Mr. Hernandez for five minutes.

00:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and hi, Mr. Secretary. It's a pleasure to meet you and to have you here.

00:12So as Puerto Rico's representative, I value the unique and enduring relationship that Puerto Rico

00:17has with the United States. The U.S., I believe, must follow through on its commitments and

00:22obligations, whether those commitments are grounded in law and mutual consent, as they are in Puerto

00:27Rico's Commonwealth relationship, or in treaty obligations, like they are in the freely

00:31associated states. The Department of Interior manages the federal government's relationships

00:36with the free associated states and for U.S. territories. Notably, it does not exercise the

00:42same authority over the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which has a greater extent of autonomy

00:45and self-government. As we review the department's budget and its allocations to the territories

00:51and freely associated states, I'm interested in what this tells us about how the federal

00:56government sees its responsibilities across these jurisdictions. So my first question would

01:02be, from the department's standpoint, are the freely associated states sovereign and independent

01:07nations?

01:10Yes. That's why they're called freely associated states. But of course, we have a strong relationship

01:16and we have commitments to work with them.

01:17Thank you. Citizens born in the freely associated states are not U.S. citizens. Would the department

01:24be open to exploring, under future compacts, extending birthright U.S. citizenship to the people of the

01:30freely associated states as it currently exists in, for example, Puerto Rico?

01:35I think this would be on a case-by-case basis. I couldn't make a broad generalization, but

01:40certainly we have an interest in building a stronger relationship as we can with the freely associated

01:47states.

01:48So you wouldn't reject the possibility that in the future, a freely associated state could have

01:54birthright U.S. citizenship?

01:55I would not reject that personally, but I can't speak on behalf of the entire administration on that.

02:02Is this something you've discussed in the context of Greenland?

02:06I have not had any discussions about that birthright citizenship related to Greenland.

02:12Have you had any discussions regarding the acquisition of Greenland and putting it under the jurisdiction

02:16of the Department of the Interior?

02:17The discussions that have occurred in public about Greenland have suggested that one framework,

02:27if Greenland were to choose to be part of the United States, that the obvious step for them

02:34to become a territory at some point would be to start as a freely associated state.

02:40And so that is an existing framework that's been mentioned, but I've not been a part of any

02:46high-level discussions about implementation of that idea.

02:51Got it.

02:51And now switching over to the four territories under the Department's jurisdiction.

02:57The Organic Acts governing the relationship between the U.S. and these territories have not been revised

03:02in decades.

03:03Would the Department support a process with the territory's consent to update these Organic Acts?

03:09I think there's an opportunity to learn from experience, and I think that the dialogue

03:16about how to improve those relationships would be beneficial.

03:20These territories and the freely associated states all represent an opportunity to help increase

03:27national security, particularly those partners in the Pacific, where, of course, we had American

03:36American soldiers and sailors fought, died as part of that.

03:40And now we're in a position, in some cases, it feels like that we've got encroachments from

03:45China around those territories and freely associated states.

03:49And I think it's important that under this administration we pay more attention to those relationships.

03:54And could future revisions of those Organic Acts, or in the case of the Mariana Islands,

03:58the Covenants, would you value the mutual consent of the territories and Congress in developing

04:05these new Organic Acts?

04:07Yeah, absolutely.

04:08And beyond national security concerns, would you be open to exploring the possibility of

04:14expanding their self-government to the largest extent possible within the U.S. framework?

04:19Again, I think that would be part of the dialogue.

04:23I don't know.

04:25I wouldn't.

04:26As I was as governor, I never agreed to a bill that I hadn't actually read.

04:31So hypothetically, I think it's great to have that conversation.

04:34And I think it's good to have this conversation because we've talked a lot about autonomy and

04:39sovereignty and let's focus on function, right?

04:42If we can make these territories as functionally sovereign as possible while still remaining

04:48under U.S. jurisdiction, if that's their will, which I think it is, we should be open to

04:53exploring that.

04:54Since I'm almost out of time, I'd just like to quickly state that DOI has previously supported

05:01climate change planning in Puerto Rico and other insular areas through funding provided

05:04by the IRA.

05:06Unfortunately, that funding has now been indefinitely paused.

05:09So I hope that you and the department can help ensure that Puerto Rico and other insular

05:13areas are prepared for the next climate-driven disasters.

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