Insular Area
An
insular area
of the
United States
is a jurisdiction that is neither a part of one of the
fifty states
nor a part of the
District of Columbia
, the nation's
federal district
.
Insular area
is the current generic term used by the
U.S. State Department
to refer to any commonwealth, freely associated state, possession or territory. In other contexts, U.S. insular areas may be described as
dependencies
,
protectorates
or
dependent areas
. (Dependent areas need not be under the formal jurisdiction of the United States.) Residents of insular areas are U.S.
citizens
, although they do not pay American federal
taxes
and cannot participate in
U.S. presidential elections
nor elect voting members of the
U.S. Congress
.
List and status of insular areas
Several islands in the
Pacific Ocean
and
Caribbean Sea
are considered insular areas of the United States:
Inhabited
American Samoa
(unincorporated, officially unorganized, although self-governing under authority of the
U.S. Department of the Interior
)
Guam
(unincorporated, organized under
Organic Act of 1950
)
Northern Mariana Islands
(unincorporated, commonwealth, organized under 1977 Covenant)
Puerto Rico
(unincorporated, commonwealth, organized under terms of
Puerto Rico-Federal Relations Act
)
U.S. Virgin Islands
(unincorporated, organized under
Revised Organic Act of 1954
)
Uninhabited
Except for Navassa Island and Wake Island, all of the following are part of the
National Wildlife Refuge
System administered by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
:
Baker Island
(unincorporated)
Howland Island
(unincorporated)
Jarvis Island
(unincorporated)
Johnston Atoll
(unincorporated)
Kingman Reef
(unincorporated)
Midway Islands
(unincorporated; administered as the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge)
Navassa Island
(unincorporated)
Palmyra Atoll
(incorporated, owned by the
Nature Conservancy
but administered by the
Office of Insular Affairs
)
Wake Island
(unincorporated)
Disputed
Serranilla Bank
Bajo Nuevo Bank
See also
Compact of Free Association
Freely associated states
Guano Islands Act
Guantanamo Bay
Incorporated territory
Insular Cases
Organized territory
Political divisions of the United States
United States Minor Outlying Islands
External links
Department of the Interior Definitions of Insular Area Political Types
Rubin, Richard, "The Lost Islands"
,
The Atlantic Monthly
, February 2001
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