
It's "were" as in the past tense of "are". But even then, I was born in Argentina. When I speak in Spanish my Argentine accent stands out to almost everyone I speak it to in the US. Americans certainly wouldn’t appreciate if Spain was governing the Florida Keys or something like that. Why should we be okay with the UK governing our islands?
Also the Bahamas were British territory until 1973 and are right off the coast of Florida so like lol just deal with it??? Bermuda is off the coast of North Carolina. We still have maritime borders with the British Virgin Islands and Dutch Sint Maarten. Something being nearby doesn’t mean it’s yours lol