How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

Saipan, a small island next to Guam, part of the commonwealth of the US, was important to the clothing-manufacturing industry starting in the 1990s. The garments were sold in the US but were made by Chinese workers brought to Saipan. Some US laws applied to the island, along with the rest of the Northern Marianas, whereas others did not, as was the case with Puerto Rico. As a result of the legal loophole, foreigners could work there for unfair wages (not part of labor laws), while the clothing sported the coveted “made in the US” label (part of trade laws).

The American empire found other expressions. The 2008 election, for instance, raised the question of citizenship for Presidential candidate John McCain, his VP Sarah Palin, and the future President Barack Obama. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a territory that was subject to US jurisdiction like Guantanamo. As a result, he was not a child born to citizens outside the limits of US jurisdiction. In 1937, a law making those born in the Canal Zone citizens was passed in 1937—a year after McCain’s birth. In turn, Sarah Palin’s husband, part Indigenous Alaskan Todd Palin, was a member of the Alaska Independence Party which negated the process by which Alaska became a state: non-English-speaking Indigenous Alaskans could not vote.