Committee briefed on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander immigration statuses and municipal election implications

Tuffy Saumnoa Tule Afua, executive director of the Pacific Community of Alaska, briefed the Anchorage Assembly Quality Municipal Services, Ethics and Elections Committee on the immigration statuses of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander residents and how those statuses can create confusion in municipal and state interactions, including voter-registration processes.

Afua told the committee that Pacific Island peoples fall into several legal categories: U.S. citizens (for example, those born in the state of Hawaii or the territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), U.S. nationals who are not U.S. citizens (people born in American Samoa and Swains Island), and citizens of Compact of Free Association (COFA) states (for example, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands). “I’m here to educate and just, you know, provide some information, about…