People born in Puerto Rico have been U.S. citizens since 1917, when Congress enacted the Jones-Shafroth Act. The bill said, “That all citizens of Porto Rico…are hereby declared, and shall be deemed and held to be, citizens of the United States: Provided, That any person hereinbefore described may retain his present political status by making a declaration, under oath, of his decision to do so within six months of the taking effect of this Act before the district court in the district in which he resides.” This law allowed anyone who chose not to become a U.S. citizen to do so,
Most Puerto Ricans gained U.S. citizenship in this way. Another law, passed on 1934, gave birthright citizenship to people born in Puerto Rico. This law was retroactive, so that all the children born to people who gained U.S. citizenship in 1917 automatically became citizens in 1934.
The Nationality Act of 1940 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 finished up the job, including Puerto Ricans who had missed out on their U.S. citizenship by being out of the country or for some other reason — including being born after 1934. The Nationality Act said, “All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are citizens of the United States at birth.” This was a step up from the Shafroth-Jones Act, which naturalized all the citizens of Puerto Rico as U.S. citizens.
The Nationality Act is still in force. People born in Puerto Rico and under the jurisdiction of the United States have birthright citizenship. Of course, people born in a Republic of Puerto Rico, with or without a Compact of Free Association, will not be under U.S. jurisdiction and therefore will not gain U.S. citizenship by birthright.
So Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens
This is true. However, they are citizens by an Act of Congress, not under the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Since Puerto Rico is not yet a state, people born there have statutory citizenship — given by a law — rather than constitutional citizenship given by the Constitution. This means that Congress can change the law, as they can change any law made by a previous Congress. They can revoke the law that gave Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship at any time.
Would Congress do that?
That’s the big question. However, it’s a question we can’t answer. The people in Congress change regularly. Some stay for a long time, but every two years the membership changes and we have essentially a new Congress. They are not bound by the decisions made by any previous Congress. so, even if we knew for sure what the current Congress would do, we can’t tell what a future Congress would do.
We hope that Congress would never dishonor the patriotic citizens of Puerto Rico, so many of whom serve in the U.S. military, in Congress, in fields of endeavor in the arts and sciences and sports and healthcare and education, and even on the Supreme Court by rescinding citizenship for Puerto Rico. It’s a fairly sure bet that they would if Puerto Rico became independent. But we hope they would not do so while Puerto Rico is a territory.
And of course they could not do so once Puerto Rico is a state. Statehood guarantees and protects U.S. citizenship, and it is the only political status that does so.
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