The United States has land borders with only Canada and Mexico, both of them long. It has maritime boundaries with many countries due to its extensive exclusive economic zone (EEZ). All of its maritime borders with Canada are at least partially disputed, and its territorial claims on three Caribbean islands are disputed.
Maritime borders that are not delineated by bilateral treaty are defined by United States acceptance of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which includes the convention's exclusive economic zone boundary definitions but does not extend to mineral rights in international waters. United States Minor Outlying Islands (USMOI) are mostly uninhabited, unorganized, and unincorporated.
Part of the United States | Foreign entity | Type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Contiguous United States | Mexico | Land, near-shore, and EEZ | Mexico–United States border, including Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Land boundaries defined by the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty (with Spain), 1828 Treaty of Limits, 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1854 Gadsden Purchase, and Boundary Treaty of 1970. Ocean boundaries defined by bilateral treaties in 1970, 1978, and 2001. [1] |
Contiguous United States | Canada | Land, near-shore, and EEZ | Canada–United States border - Partially disputed in the Atlantic Ocean (Maine-New Brunswick) and Pacific Ocean (Washington State-British Columbia). Passamaquoddy Bay border defined by 1910 treaty. Gulf of Maine partial border defined by 1984 ruling of the International Court of Justice. [1] Land and Great Lakes border defined by the 1783 Treaty of Paris, 1794 Jay Treaty, Treaty of 1818, 1842 Webster–Ashburton Treaty and 1846 Oregon Treaty (all with the United Kingdom). |
Alaska | Canada | Land, near-shore, and EEZ | Canada–United States border - disputed in the Arctic Ocean (Yukon) and Pacific Ocean (British Columbia). [1] Land border defined by Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825, and 1903 Hay–Herbert Treaty (with the United Kingdom). |
Alaska | Russia | EEZ | The de facto boundary between the United States and Russia is defined by the USSR–USA Maritime Boundary Agreement, negotiated with the Soviet Union in 1990, [1] covering the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Arctic Ocean. The agreement was never ratified by the Soviet Union before it dissolved, and it has never been ratified by the Russian State Duma. It has been ratified by the United States Senate, respected in practices by both governments, and defended against encroachment by fishing vessels. The boundary line generally follows the line agreed to during the 1867 Alaska Purchase, though this could not be entirely determined because neither country could produce maps agreed to at that time. |
Contiguous United States | Bahamas | EEZ, Atlantic Ocean | UNCLOS [1] |
Contiguous United States | Cuba | EEZ, Gulf of Mexico | 1977 Cuba–United States Maritime Boundary Agreement [1] |
Puerto Rico and United States Virgin Islands | Dominican Republic, British Virgin Islands and Anguilla (dependencies of the United Kingdom), Sint Maarten (dependency of the Netherlands), Venezuela | EEZ, Caribbean Sea | 1993 United Kingdom–United States Maritime Boundary Treaties, 1980 United States–Venezuela Maritime Boundary Treaty, others UNCLOS [1] |
Northern Mariana Islands | Japan (Volcano Islands) | EEZ, Pacific Ocean | UNCLOS [1] |
Guam | Federated States of Micronesia (freely associated state) | EEZ, Pacific Ocean | Defined by 2019 treaty. [1] |
American Samoa | Tonga, Samoa, and New Zealand dependencies: Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau | EEZ, Pacific Ocean | Cook Islands and Tokelau borders defined by three treaties in 1980, 1980, and 1997, respectively; others UNCLOS [1] |
Baker Island and Howland Island, Johnston Atoll and Kingman Reef, and Jarvis Island (USMOI) | Kiribati (three discontinuous extents) | EEZ, Pacific Ocean | Defined by 2019 treaty. [1] |
Wake Island (disputed USMOI) | Marshall Islands (freely associated state) | EEZ, Pacific Ocean | Claimed by Marshall Islands, administered by the United States |
Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank (disputed USMOI) | Colombia, Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua | EEZ, Caribbean Sea | Claimed by Colombia (other neighbors recognize Colombian claim [2] ) |
Navassa Island (disputed USMOI) | Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba | EEZ, Caribbean Sea | Claimed by Haiti |
Insular areas in the Pacific and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not included in the main domestic customs territory which is limited to the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
The United States administers Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on what both countries agree is the sovereign territory of Cuba under a permanent lease obtained under the Cuban–American Treaty of Relations (1903), while Cuba was under American military occupation after the 1898 Spanish–American War. After the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, Cuba disputed the validity of this lease and ceased cooperating with the base. The boundary is highly militarized, but the United States has maintained control without active fighting.
Three agencies in the federal Department of Homeland Security split border-related responsibilities. U.S. Customs and Border Protection staffs official border checkpoints, collects tariff duties, and inspects arriving people, and inspects goods being imported by land, sea, and air. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement polices borders away from official points of entry. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services administers immigration procedures.
The United States Coast Guard actively patrols the nation's extensive maritime borders, acting as a law enforcement agency in peacetime. The United States Armed Forces are generally prohibited from domestic law enforcement (including arresting smugglers and illegal immigrants) under the Posse Comitatus Act, but can be activated to secure the border in an emergency or respond to an attack. State and federal National Guard troops and even active-duty military personnel have been used in support roles at the border, which has been controversial and limited by legal complexities. [6] [7]
The border search exception to the guarantees in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution against unreasonable search and seizure and requirement for search warrants apply to border checkpoints and areas within 100 miles (160 km) of the border.
Navassa Island is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located northeast of Jamaica, south of Cuba, and 40 nautical miles west of Jérémie on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, it is subject to an ongoing territorial dispute between Haiti and the United States, which administers the island through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The United States Minor Outlying Islands is a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code. The entry code is ISO 3166-2:UM. The minor outlying islands and groups of islands consist of eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean and one in the Caribbean Sea.
In the United States, a territory is any extent of region under the sovereign jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States, including all waters. The United States asserts sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing its territory. This extent of territory is all the area belonging to, and under the dominion of, the United States federal government for administrative and other purposes. The United States total territory includes a subset of political divisions.
In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of a U.S. state or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sovereign states each with a Compact of Free Association with the United States. The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the Swan Islands, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, as well as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands when it existed.
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and Indian reservations as they are not sovereign entities. In contrast, each state has a sovereignty separate from that of the federal government and each federally recognized Native American tribe possesses limited tribal sovereignty as a "dependent sovereign nation." Territories are classified by incorporation and whether they have an "organized" government through an organic act passed by the Congress. American territories are under American sovereignty and, consequently, may be treated as part of the United States proper in some ways and not others. Unincorporated territories in particular are not considered to be integral parts of the United States, and the Constitution of the United States applies only partially in those territories.
The Guano Islands Act is a United States federal law passed by the Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits in the name of the United States. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied by citizens of another country and not within the jurisdiction of another government. It also empowers the president to use the military to protect such interests and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States in these territories.
The Canada–United States border is the longest international border in the world. The boundary is 8,891 km (5,525 mi) long. The land border has two sections: Canada's border with the contiguous United States to its south, and with the U.S. state of Alaska to its west. The bi-national International Boundary Commission deals with matters relating to marking and maintaining the boundary, and the International Joint Commission deals with issues concerning boundary waters. The agencies responsible for facilitating legal passage through the international boundary are the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Machias Seal Island is an island in disputed water between the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy, about 16 km (10 mi) southeast from Cutler, Maine, and 19 km (12 mi) southwest of Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick. Sovereignty of the island is disputed by the United States and Canada. The Canadian Coast Guard continues to staff a lighthouse on the island; the first lighthouse was constructed there in 1832.
Serranilla Bank is a partially submerged reef, with small uninhabited islets, in the western Caribbean Sea. It is situated about 350 kilometres (220 mi) northeast of Punta Gorda, Nicaragua, and roughly 280 kilometres (170 mi) southwest of Jamaica. The closest neighbouring land feature is Bajo Nuevo Bank, located 110 kilometres (68 mi) to the east.
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.
The Dixon Entrance is a strait about 80 kilometers (50 mi) long and wide in the Pacific Ocean at the Canada–United States border, between the U.S. state of Alaska and the province of British Columbia in Canada. The Dixon Entrance is part of the Inside Passage shipping route. It forms part of the maritime boundary between the U.S. and Canada, although the location of that boundary here is disputed.
A federal territory is an administrative division under the direct and usually exclusive jurisdiction of a federation's national government. A federal territory is a part of a federation, but not a part of any federated state. The states constitute the federation itself and share sovereignty with the federal government, while a territory does not have sovereign status and is constitutionally dependent on the federal government.
The Treaty of Tokehega, officially titled the Treaty between the United States of America and New Zealand on the Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Tokelau and the United States of America, is a 1980 treaty between New Zealand and the United States that settles disputed claims and delineates the maritime boundary between Tokelau and American Samoa. The treaty's short name is a portmanteau of Tokelau and Olohega, which the boundary separates.
The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the major war known by Americans as the French and Indian War and by Canadians as the Seven Years' War / Guerre de Sept Ans, or by French-Canadians, La Guerre de la Conquête. It was signed by Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. Preferring to keep Guadeloupe, France gave up Canada and all of its claims to territory east of the Mississippi River to Britain. With France out of North America this dramatically changed the European political scene on the continent.
The Cook Islands–United States Maritime Boundary Treaty is a 1980 treaty that establishes the maritime boundary between the Cook Islands and American Samoa. It resolved a number of territorial disputes between the Cook Islands and the United States.
The United States has the world's second-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The total size is 11,351,000 km2 (4,383,000 sq mi)2. Areas of its EEZ are located in three oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Most notable areas are Alaska, Hawaii, the East Coast, West Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States.