Is Puerto Rico unique? Of course! In its arts, culinary traditions, natural beauty, and history, Puerto Rico is unique…just like every state and nation. But Puerto Rico gets called unique much more often than most, and those claims are most often wrong. We’re not calling any publications out, but just sharing some of the many, Manu statements you can find online about Puerto Rico’s unique status and citizenship. But is Puerto Rican citizenship really unique?
Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory
Puerto Rico’s political status is not unique. The Island is an unincorporated territory, like American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In all the unincorporated territories, the U.S. Constitution applies only partially. Residents can’t vote in presidential elections and have no voting representatives in Congress. Except in American Samoa, where the majority of residents do not want U.S. citizenship, the people of the unincorporated territories are U.S. citizens by birth. However, that citizenship is statutory — that is, it depends on a law passed by Congress. It is not constitutional, so it is not covered by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, as states are.
That means that Congress can take away the U.S. citizenship of territorial citizens at any time. Citizenship is only protected and guaranteed under statehood.
Territories, incorporated or unincorporated, fall under the Territorial Clause of the Constitution. This means that Congress makes all the “rules and regulations” for the territories. While states have sovereignty and rights, territories do not. The means that Congress can treat territories differently from states, while states are all legally on an equal footing. That’s why the territories don’t have the same federal benefits as states.
Being a territory is certainly strange. But all these strange things apply to all five of the unincorporated territories. Puerto Rico’s political status is not unique.
Why do people think Puerto Rico has a unique political status?
Some people just don’t know exactly what a territory is, don’t know there is such a thing as an unincorporated territory, or don’t realize that there are five of them. But for others, and especially for Puerto Ricans, the confusion is the result of decades of deception.
Puerto Ricans have been told that the United States and Puerto Rico have a unique relationship that can blossom into a unique political status if only there is the political will to achieve this flowering. This is not true. The political status described by people peddling this story has been declared unconstitutional repeatedly. Psychologists have studied why people continue to believe lies, so it is understandable, but it is not wise.
Puerto Rico’s choices
Puerto Rico’s political status is not unique, and our citizenship is not unique. With statehood, we can leave the group of territories with statutory citizenship and limited constitutional protection. We can join the group of states with full constitutional protection, equal rights, and sovereignty. Tell your legislators that you want statehood for Puerto Rico.
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