Its people are US citizens, but relationship is complicated
When President Donald Trump travels to Puerto Rico this week, he’ll see firsthand the devastation that Hurricane Maria brought to the island. Puerto Rico has no electricity, and might not for months. Much of the water is undrinkable. About 80 percent of the island’s crop value is gone, a loss of $780 million.
More than 3.4 million people live in Puerto Rico, yet the political and popular response to the catastrophe was far more muted — at least initially — than the response to the devastation in Houston from Hurricane Harvey or that in Florida from Hurricane Irma. That might be because, according to a Suffolk University/ USA Today poll conducted in March, many Americans don’t realize that Puerto Ricans are Americans, too.
Here are answers to questions you might have about Puerto Rico and its relationship with the United States: Are Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens? Yes. Under Section 302 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, people born in Puerto Rico have the same birthright American citizenship as people born in the 50 states. (Puerto Ricans born between April 11, 1899, and Jan. 13, 1941, became citizens when the act was passed.)
Gov. Ricardo A. Rossello of Puerto Rico emphasized this in pleading last week for federal aid.
“Puerto Rico, which is part of the United States, can turn into a humanitarian crisis,” he said. “To avoid that, recognize that we Puerto Ricans are American citizens. When we speak of a catastrophe, everyone must be treated equally.”
Can they vote in national elections?
You might think so, given that they are citizens, but on the biggest stage, the answer is no. Puerto Rico has no representation in the Electoral College, so its people cannot vote in general presidential elections. It does, however, have a say in presidential nominations: Last year, Marco Rubio won the Republican primary there, and Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary.
Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States. This is the same legal status held by the Northern Mariana Islands, and confers rights similar to those of unincorporated territories such as Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
What this means in practical terms is complicated. Most Puerto Ricans do not pay federal income taxes, but they do pay Social Security, Medicare, import, export and commodity taxes. Their federal tax bills add up to more than $3 billion a year.
Puerto Rico has a delegate in the House of Representatives who serves on and votes in committees but cannot vote on the House floor; that position is held by Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, a Republican. This makes Puerto Rico’s representation in Congress identical to that of Washington, D.C., although Washington’s legal status is different.
Some parts of the Constitution apply in Puerto Rico, and some do not, and even experts are not always sure which are which. This odd arrangement dates to 1901 and the so-called Insular Cases, a series of Supreme Court rulings led by Downes v. Bidwell. As recently as 2016, a federal judge in Puerto Rico ruled (in a decision quickly reversed on appeal) that the island did not have to abide by the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
Two Supreme Court cases last year clarified elements of the island’s status. In Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle, the justices ruled that a person cannot be prosecuted for the same crime by both the federal government and the Puerto Rican government, even though a person can be prosecuted separately by both the federal government and a state. And in Puerto Rico v. Franklin, the justices ruled that Puerto Rico cannot allow its municipalities to declare bankruptcy — something that states can do.
Why isn’t it a state?
There is a long-standing statehood movement in Puerto Rico, and five referendums have been held on the subject. In the most recent one, which was held in June and had very low turnout, 97 percent of the votes cast were in favor of statehood.
The referendum was nonbinding, however, and it is ultimately up to Congress to decide whether to admit Puerto Rico as a state.
After the vote, Rossello, a Democrat, chose two senators and five representatives — the numbers Puerto Rico would have based on its population — to go to Washington and demand to be seated. But Congress has not acted and is not likely to do so in the foreseeable future.
Do Americans support aid for Puerto Rico?
A poll of 2,200 adults conducted by Morning Consult from Sept. 22 to 24 found that only 54 percent of Americans knew that people born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens. That finding was higher than in the Suffolk University/USAToday poll, perhaps because Puerto Rico was in the news as Hurricane Maria began to hammer it.
The level of support is important. Americans often support cuts to foreign aid when asked to evaluate spending priorities. In the Morning Consult online poll, support for additional aid was strongly associated with knowledge of the citizenship status of Puerto Ricans. More than 8 in 10 Americans who knew that Puerto Ricans are citizens supported aid, compared with only 4 in 10 of those who did not. 200 miles San Juan 20 miles Source: maps4news.com/©HERE GATEHOUSE MEDIA