Rep. Raul Grijalva, the chair of the House committee in charge of Puerto Rico, is not an estadista. He has been in the group that keeps saying Puerto Rico needs self determination, year after year, as Puerto Rico performs valid acts of self-determination leading again and again to a request for statehood.

So it may be surprising that Grijalva took the lead on chastising the Department of Justice for their claim that they still need Puerto Rico to make up her mind on status preference.

The DOJ rejected funding for the 2020 ballot

The Department of Justice didn’t reject the 2020 vote or even threaten to do so. But they did refuse to approve federal funding for the vote. Why?

The first reason they gave was that Puerto Rico had missed its deadline and there just wasn’t enough time. Governor Wanda Vázquez retorted in a letter this summer that it was the DOJ rather than the government of Puerto Rico that had missed the deadline.

Second, they claimed that it wasn’t clear that Puerto Rico had rejected the current territorial political status.

It was this claim that Grijalva and 21 other members of Congress disputed in a recent letter.

“I am deeply concerned by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) contentions that the residents of the island did not directly reject the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s current territory status in a local plebiscite held in 2012,” the letter began.

“The argument that Puerto Rico did not reject its current territory status in 2012 conflates the plebiscite’s two separate questions,” the letter continues. “The first question asked voters ‘Do you agree that Puerto Rico should continue to have its present form of territorial status?’ According to results certified by PRSEC, approximately 78.2% of eligible voters answered this question and 54.0% chose ‘No’. There is no serious debate about the results of the first question.”

In other words, 54% — a clear majority — of voters cast their ballots against continuing as a territory.

The second question

“The second question asked voters to choose between statehood, independence, and a sovereign free associated state, regardless of their selection in the first question,” Grijalva’s letter then says. “According to results certified by PRSEC, approximately 61.2% chose statehood, 33.3% chose sovereign free associated state, and 5.5% chose independence.” This is, on the face of it, a clear majority in favor of statehood.

“However,” the letter continues, “some people debate the results of the second question. ‘Debate focused on whether almost 500,000 blank answers on the second question should be included in the total, thereby affecting whether any alternative received a majority.’”

The quote in the letter was of the Congressional Research Service, which included this information in a 2017 report on the Political Status of Puerto Rico.

DOJ is disingenuous

“Therefore, it is disingenuous of DOJ to write that in 2012 the residents of Puerto Rico did not reject the island’s current territory status, as demonstrated by the results of the first question,” the letter concludes. “The Executive Branch, Congress, and Puerto Rico’s elected government officials must work together to resolve the island’s political status, and that process requires accurately describing and acknowledging the aspirations of the residents of Puerto Rico.”

Grijalva used the term “disingenuous,” which describes dishonesty masquerading as ignorance. This is saying that the DOJ is pretending that they don’t know that Puerto Rico soundly rejected the current territorial status — in 2012, 2017, and 2020, in a series of status votes.

Who signed the letter?

21 members of Congress, in addition to Grijalva, signed the letter upbraiding the DOJ for their dishonesty:

  • Darren Soto
  • Jared Huffman
  • Michael F.Q. San Nicolas
  • Alan Lowenthal
  • Juan Vargas
  • Jmie Raskin
  • Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
  • Ann Kirkpatrick
  • Susan Wild
  • Val Demings
  • Debbie Wasserman Schultz
  • Brendan Boyle
  • Tony Cardenas
  • Alcee Hastings
  • Marcy Kaptur
  • Theodore Deutch
  • Nanette Diaz Barragan
  • Ed Case
  • Ruben Gallego
  • Matt Cartwright
  • Jose Serrano

Do you see your congressperson on the list? Please thank them and let them know that you agree: Puerto Rico has rejected the current territorial status, and have chosen statehood. If your representative is not on the list above, please let them know that you want them to rethink their position.

Please also click below to tweet Rep. Grijalva’s sensible and honest claim:

Rep. Grijalva Calls DOJ “Disingenuous” Click To Tweet

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3 Responses

  1. “Beware of false knowledge, it is more dangerous than ignorance”
    G B Shaw

    PR is now the official political football of the US congress and continue to be a local mess of disunity and lack of consensus.
    Democrats advocating for an assign congress mandated constitutional assembly to determine the future of the island and
    bypass the constitutionally legal island voters.
    A former President Commenting on linking PR to DC Statehood and use those votes to eliminate the electoral college.
    Ironically, the purpose of the electoral college is to protect the less populous states and ensure everyone has a voice.
    PR continues to lack credible representatives of conservative fiscal and political views.

    Granting Statehood to PR -as the majority of island voters requested through their democratic legal votes – should not be use as a bargaining tool by any congress members or any USA President.
    Granting Statehood to PR should occur as a process to honor and follow the US constitution and its protection of equality for all legal American Citizens.

  2. SUPPORT Fair Treatment-Equal Rights for all “WE THE PEOPLE”! CONTACT/ASK US Congress and US President– to provide fellow US Citizens-American Veterans in the US Territory of Puerto Rico (with more US Citizens than 22 States that face Federal discrimination since 1898) —
    EQUALITY+PROGRESS=STATEHOOD with DIGNITY!

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