Roach, speaking to UVI graduates on St. Croix, said the Virgin Islands’ current political relationship with the United States will change and raised the possibility of deeper ties with the British Virgin Islands. Photo: DEAR PRODUCTIONS

Speaking before the Class of 2026 at the Island Center for the Performing Arts, Mr Roach said the territory’s status as an unincorporated territory of the United States places the Virgin Islands in a political relationship that many residents do not fully examine beyond the fact that they cannot vote for president.

“But the one that they don't speak about really cuts to the core of what that status is,” Mr Roach said. “It is that the Constitution of the United States is not fully applicable to the territory of the Virgin Islands, and the provisions that are applicable are only done so by acts of Congress, which has plenary authority over the territories.”

Mr. Roach explained “plenary” in plain terms, telling graduates that it means “everything, all authority.” He said that reality is especially important “in the time that we are living in,” because the Virgin Islands remains “a non-self-governing territory of the United States.”

A much deeper conversation

His remarks placed the commencement ceremony within a much larger conversation about self-determination, colonial history, and the responsibility of young Virgin Islanders to think seriously about the territory’s political future.

The territory’s modern system of self-government developed gradually. The Organic Act of 1936 helped establish the foundation for local government, while the Revised Organic Act of 1954 provided the framework that still shapes much of the territory’s governing structure. The first elections for constitutional officers were held in 1970.

Still, Mr. Roach told graduates that the larger question of status remains unresolved. He pointed to the United Nations framework for non-self-governing territories, saying the territory must eventually choose among pathways such as independence, full integration into the administering state, or free association, a negotiated relationship with the United States or another state.

“In your lifetime, this status will change at some time. It will change,” he said.

Deeper ties with the VI

The lieutenant governor also raised the possibility of deeper ties with the British Virgin Islands, a neighboring British Overseas Territory with close cultural and geographic connections to the U.S. Virgin Islands. He noted that the BVI is separated from the U.S. Virgin Islands by only a short distance, especially when viewed from the east end of St. John, and said both territories share cultural similarities that should not be ignored.

“We have a neighboring territory, the British Virgin Islands, separated by only 10 miles, if you look out to them from the east end of St. John, but culturally very similar to who we are,” Mr. Roach said. He added that one option discussed in the United Nations context is whether both territories could decide together that they have the resources “to combine and become a country of ourselves,” stressing that such a choice would be one “that nobody has imposed on us.”

Mr. Roach framed that possibility not as a declaration of policy, but as an issue worthy of serious consideration. He pointed to the collective assets of both territories, including the natural environment, airports, hospitals, higher education institutions, vocational training, and a shared language and culture.

“If you consider that possibility, here is a territory with one of the most pristine environments in the world,” he said, referring to the combined U.S. and British Virgin Islands. He then cited “three international airports, at least three hospitals,” a cancer center on St. Thomas, a cardiac center on St. Croix, a community college, a university, a medical school, vocational institutions, “and a people with a common language and culture.”

The remarks stood out at a ceremony otherwise focused on academic achievement, community pride, and the promise of the graduating class. Mr. Roach began his speech on a deeply personal note, saying he was still grieving the loss of his sister, Violet Alicia Brown Roach, who died earlier this month and was buried last Saturday.