Fifth Constitutional Convention in USVI (homes, buying, income)

[lentzr]

I just can not find out more information about the activities of the Fifth Constitution Convention in the USVI. What I do know from wikipedia is the following...It looks like the Convention was formed in 2004 by the USVI Legislature. In 2009, they forced the USVI governor to send a new proposed Constitution to the US Congress for approval. In 2010 the Obama administration appears to have signed into law a rejection of this "new" constitution; in other words he signed a bill to send the proposed constitution back to the USVI for revision and encouraged them to write up a revised version. Following this order to revise the Constitution of the USVI, I have heard nothing about the current activities of the Constitutional Convention. What have they been up to in the past two years? Where is it headed? Also, what about the proposed Constitution was rejected by the Federal Government? Please explain the proposed changes to the political status of the USVI.

[lentzr]

Wait...I just found the bill rejecting the proposed Constitution for the USVI...

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-11...111publ194.pdf

Am I correct to assume the USVI wanted more autonomy...perhaps too much considering many proposals are a rejection of Federal law.

[lentzr]

Also...here is an article on the rejection of the Constitution. It looks like the Constitution would have given many special preferences to "Native Virgin Islanders" and failed to acknowledge the sovereignty of the United States.

DOJ Recommends Changes to Proposed Virgin Islands Constitution | Main Justice

Hence, this just still leaves me with the question...What has happened since?

Secondly, it sounds like there is a bit of animosity towards immigrants and individuals from the mainland; the fact that special benefits would be reserved to "Native Virgin Islanders." Is the USVI like the Bahamas in which there was a strong backlash against people from overseas buying second homes and/or retiring there? My friend is a native of West Africa and even he was treated by Bahamians as an outsider when he attempted to retire down there. Is that the case with the USVI? Does this have something to do with outsiders purchasing the best land, especially on St. John? Discuss.

[WIHS2006]

Both President Obama and the Governor John de Jongh rejected the proposed Constitution because it would have discriminated against non-native Virgin Islanders ... good call in my book. Guam, the USVI, and American Samoa have tried in the past to restrict voting rights exclusively to those born in the territory and that is unconstitutional. They would be the first to complain if we restricted voting rights nationally to White landowners only. Double standard.

The Federal government has been so hands off when it comes to US territories and "Indian Nations" that they seem to have forgotten who their sovereignty falls under.


US territories desire the autonomy of states of the union, the special privileges of American Indian Nations, and the tax exemption of the territory status all combined into one special status that is neither a state of the union nor a colonial territory. They want all the benefits of statehood but none of the associated responsibilities (ie: Federal income taxes or Federal minimum wage laws) - see the problem?