Puerto Ricans have been citizens of the United States since 1917 — 108 years. However, Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States for 127 years.
What was happening between the admission of Puerto Rico as a territory and the time when Puerto Ricans became citizens?
A hearing in the joint Committee on the Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico in 1912 gives a glimpse into that time. The committee was considering a bill which would have made people in Puerto Rico citizens, as the 1917 bill that followed it did.
The 1912 bill did not pass. Why did it take five more years for Puerto Ricans to become citizens? And why had it taken more than a decade to reach the 1912 discussion?
Foraker Act
The Foraker Act of 1900 included a section that said people in Puerto Rico were “citizens of Porto Rico,” unless they had specifically chosen to remain citizens of Spain.
Sec. 7. That all inhabitants continuing to reside therein who were Spanish subjects on the eleventh day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and then resided in Porto Rico, and their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the protection of the United States, except such as shall have elected to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on or before the eleventh day of April, nineteen hundred, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain entered into on the eleventh day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine; and they, together with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of The People of Porto Rico, with governmental powers as hereinafter conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such.
The 1912 hearing tired to figure out what “citizens of Porto Rico” could mean if it didn’t mean U.S. citizenship, but the lively conversation did not reach a conclusion on that question.
In 1904, in the case of Gonzales v. Williams, the Supreme Court affirmed that Puerto Ricans were indeed citizens. “The cession of Porto Rico definitely transferred the allegiance of the native inhabitants from Spain to the United States,” the decision said. “This form of the transfer of sovereignty was confirmed by the act of April 12, 1900. Thus the inhabitants have acquired United States citizenship, and have been incorporated with those who were already American citizens in the same body politic according to sec. 7 of [the Foraker] act.”
The decision went on to point out that Puerto Rico had a representative in Congress, and that Congress surely would not have allowed “an alien” to be a member of Congress.
However, Congress had not yet officially given U.S. citizenship to the people of Puerto Rico. The 1912 hearing included discussions of both these documents, with some participants insisting that both the U.S. and Puerto Rico had wanted a permanent connection from the beginning, as indicated by the documents quoted above, and some saying that it was essential to make sure that everyone in Puerto Rico agreed that they wanted to be U.S. citizens.
Labor movement support, presidential approval
The labor movements of both Puerto Rico and the mainland United States worked forcefully for full citizenship rights for Puerto Rico, and President Teddy Roosevelt was on their side. Meanwhile, the legislature of Puerto Rico passed a joint resolution requesting citizenship and conveyed this to the U.S. House of representatives.
In 1906, a pithy message from President Roosevelt to Congress said, “American citizenship should be conferred on the people of Port Rico.”
Apparently this message failed in its object, because it was followed a week later by further messages saying that the people of Porto Rico were loyal to the United States, and that justice required that they should have citizenship. “Surely,” it concluded, “we should show our appreciation of them, our pride in what they have done, and our pleasure in extending recognition of what has thus been done by granting them full American citizenship.”
A year later, another message from Roosevelt said, “I again recommend that the rights of citizenship be conferred upon the people of Porto Rico.” The same message was sent again in 1908. In 1909, Roosevelt added that he saw “no excuse for failure to do so.”
The Congressional report for this period remarks that President Roosevelt was upset by the “injustice and embarrassment involved in longer continuing the present status.”
House Report 341, from the Second Session of the Congress in 1912, contains this claim:
There are many able and learned lawyers who hold that the people of Port Rico are now citizens of the United States; that when Congress established the civil government which now exists in that island, it thereby became an organized Territory of the United States to which the Constitution of the United States is applicable as elsewhere in the continental United States.
The report goes on to say that the people of Puerto Rico are faithful and patriotic members of the American community, that they are operating under the understanding that they were already citizens of the United States, and that Congress should officially regularize the relationship that already existed.
Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, was present at the meeting and shared his belief that Puerto Rico was united in desiring U.S. citizenship. The AFL had adopted a resolution supporting citizenship for Puerto Rico in 1900.
The record of the 1912 hearing includes a letter from the president of Puerto Rico’s labor organization, Ignazio Iglesias, to President Taft, then president of the United States, listing a number of legislators and organizations which supported citizenship for Puerto Ricans and asking for written support from the president.
President Taft responded:
I am in favor of granting citizenship to the people of Port Rico. The relationship between Porto Rico and the United States has been, from the beginning, regarded as permanent.
Congress offends Puerto Rico
Throughout this period, there were not only numerous claims that the people of Puerto Rico wanted and deserved citizenship, but also concerns that Puerto Ricans could no longer become naturalized citizens of the United States, since they were not foreigners, and also that travel was difficult for Puerto Ricans as long as they had no clear citizenship.
In the 1912 hearing, Senator Clarke of Arkansas asked, “Do you know of any plan or procedure possible under our Constitution by which there can be such a thing as full American citizenship and qualified American citizenship?”
Senator Fall of New Mexico, after pointing out that his state had just succeeded after more than 60 years in attaining statehood, pointed out that Puerto Rico had “two different classes of voters” at that time, since some were U.S. citizens and some were not.
The committee agreed that the U.S. had only one kind of citizenship, and rejected the idea that some other kind of citizenship was meant in the documents they were considering.
Two presidents had, at this point, called for citizenship for Puerto Rico. However, the Territorial Clause makes it clear that Congress is in charge of territories.
During this time, it was clear that the people of Puerto Rico were offended by the failure of Congress to grant citizenship, and that this failure was harming the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States.
Still, bills for citizenship for Puerto Rico failed to pass each year.
In 1914, the House of Delegates in Puerto Rico sent a message to the Congress saying that they did not want U.S. citizenship after all. This did not end the discussion. With continued support from a succession of presidents, the citizenship bill continued to languish. It was not until WWI was on the horizon and Puerto Rico began to fit into President Wilson’s plans regarding U.S. involvement, according to historian Ronald Fernandez, that citizenship was finally granted in 1917.
Statehood
Statehood was also discussed during the 1912 hearing. Some speakers opposed statehood for Puerto Rico while others spoke of it as the inevitable outcome of U.S. citizenship.
Just as Congress had to confer citizenship on Puerto Rico, even after presidents, legal scholars, and activists insisted it was long overdue, Congress will have to make the final decision on statehood for Puerto Rico. Reach out to your legislators and ask them to get on the right side of history.
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