Three people born in American Samoa have sued the U.S. government, saying that its failure to grant them birthright citizenship violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and renders them "second-class Americans."
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Utah, where all three of the plaintiffs live, asks that all people born in American Samoa be granted citizenship and its attendant rights as well as new passports reflecting that status.
American Samoa, an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean with a population of about 55,000, has been an unincorporated U.S. territory since 1900.