It’s President’s Day across the United States, including Puerto Rico, a day to remember great heroes of democracy and human rights like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But in Puerto Rico the celebration of President’s Day has a special meaning.
For over 500 years Puerto Rico has been a colony. It was occupied by Spain first, and has belonged to the United States since 1898. It is the oldest colony in the world. In 2017 our nation celebrated a full century of U.S. citizenship in Puerto Rico. Even though the patriotic citizens of Puerto Rico are patient, aspirations for resolution of the territory’s political status have been growing stronger for decades.
What does the president mean to Puerto Rico?
Millions of U.S. citizens look to our president as the chief executive of a co-equal branch of our national government. While Congress has the power to make decisions for U.S. territories, the president also has a responsibility to define Puerto Rico’s political status options truthfully and in a legally valid manner. The President of the United States is the Commander in Chief whom tens of thousands of citizens from Puerto Rico have served in every war for more than a century.
We know that Congress has the express power to define territorial status, and that Congress has been the steward of our well-being and development. But we also know that Congress has defaulted on the promise of government by consent leading to equal rights and duties of citizenship, and the Federal Courts have created more ambiguity than clarity in the fundamental constitutional rights of citizenship in the territory.
Even after U.S. citizenship was granted for Puerto Rico in 1917, the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress have not extended the U.S. Constitution to Puerto Rico, as our nation historically has done for every other territory with a U.S. citizen population. In contrast, since Puerto Rico adopted a constitution in 1952, every U.S. President has supported the right of Puerto Rico to end limited self-government under the current territorial status in favor of full democracy through statehood or nationhood.
Presidents have supported statehood for Puerto Rico
Recognizing that Congress and the federal courts had deviated from sound historical territorial policy under the Constitution, President Ford was the first U.S. President to advocate statehood for Puerto Rico. President Reagan believed that the current system of less than fully democratic government euphemistically called “commonwealth” left millions of U.S. citizens in the territory in a “historically unnatural” status. He also believed that statehood was the political status solution most consistent with U.S. national interests.
In his first address to Congress, President Bush told the nation he also favored statehood, and periodic votes until the present temporary territory status and “commonwealth” system of territorial government ended in favor of statehood or nationhood. Since then President Clinton established and his successors President Bush and Obama appointed the members of The President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status. Historic reports by the White House that have been prepared by the PTPRS have done more to define the legal, political, historical and constitutional roadmap to status resolution than any act or Congress or ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
President Biden also supported statehood, though less boldly than previous presidents. President Trump made a statement in which he said, “I believe the people of Puerto Rico deserve a process of status self-determination that gives them a fair and unambiguous choice on this matter. As president I will do my part to insure that Congress follows the Constitution. The will of the Puerto Rican people in any status referendum should be considered as Congress follows through on any desired change in status for Puerto Rico, including statehood.”
The will of the people
A plebiscite on legally valid status options was held in Puerto Rico on November 6th, 2012. 54 percent of the respondents voted against Puerto Rico continuing in its present form of territorial status (Commonwealth), and 61 percent preferred moving towards statehood rather than independence or a sovereign free associated state. In every status vote since then, statehood has won again. The will of the people of Puerto Rico is known.
The results of the 2012, 2017, 2020, and 2024 votes are incontrovertible and can not be disputed legitimately, though some have tried and failed to do so.
The power to grant statehood lies with Congress. But 200,000 citizens from Puerto Rico have served in the armed forces, and proportional to its population we have suffered more casualties than any state in the union. Nonetheless, so far that has not moved Congress to create a federal policy and legal mechanism to resolve the status question.
If ever there was a cause for Congress to rally behind, it should be to distribute political rights to nearly 3.2 million American citizens who are denied the opportunity to participate in the political body that enacts the supreme law they must follow. Until that happens, the 21st century status votes suggest that most citizens in Puerto Rico will hope the president will take the lead in seeking Congressional action.
Ultimately all three branches of the Federal Government must act together to redeem the promise of the Constitution and what it means to all citizens, including those in Puerto Rico. Until then, on President’s Day we will remember the special meaning of the holiday for Puerto Rico, because every president since Eisenhower has upheld the Constitution for U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico to the full extent possible, while Congress and the courts have relied on the flawed doctrine that the Constitution does not even apply in Puerto Rico.
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