It’s time for Congress to give Puerto Ricans what they have demanded: statehood  Opinion


Pedro Pierluisi

Pedro Pierluisi is governor of Puerto Rico

and former resident commissioner for Puerto Rico in Congress.

Mon, March 1, 2021

On Nov. 3, as U.S. citizens in the 50 states voted for their federal representatives, more than a million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico declared in no uncertain terms, in a nonbinding referendum, that they want equality and that they no longer consent to being subject to that same federal government without having a voice and a vote.

For the third time in less than a decade, the people of Puerto Rico voted in favor of becoming a state of the United States. It is time for Congress to act on the moral and political imperative conveyed by our clear message.

Since 1898, when the United States took possession of Puerto Rico as a product of the Spanish-American War, our political status has been an open question — and an open wound.

Our current status denies us the most important principle of our democracy: equality. It keeps us perpetual second-class citizens, with American passports, but without having the same rights as our fellow citizens on the mainland, including millions of our family members. As a result, our economy suffers, our ability to respond to disasters such as Hurricane Maria suffers, our vulnerable citizens suffer and so many of our brothers and sisters move to the mainland in search of the rights and opportunities they should have at home.

We have been proud American citizens for more than 100 years. Puerto Ricans have fought in each of America’s wars in the 20th and 21st centuries. Nine Puerto Ricans have won the Medal of Honor, and the 65th Infantry Regiment was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. However, more than 375,000 Puerto Rican soldiers and veterans and 3 million of their brethren cannot vote for our commander-in-chief and lack equal representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Now that the people have spoken so clearly, there is no excuse. Congress must act.

For years, those opposed to statehood for Puerto Rico, both on the island and on the mainland, hid behind the flimsy argument that Puerto Ricans had not made a clear, democratic choice expressing that statehood was their preferred path forward. This, despite the fact that there have been three island-wide elections in the past 10 years, and statehood has won each time.

Today, there can be no doubt about where the American citizens of Puerto Rico stand. On Nov. 3, we were asked a simple question: “Should Puerto Rico be admitted immediately into the Union as a state?” and given two alternatives, “Yes” or “No.” “Yes” carried the day by a clear majority.

Moreover, the statehood question, which shared the ballot with other island-wide elections, garnered more than 100,000 votes more than the candidate who received the most votes. The statehood question was clearly on voters’ minds, and the “Yes” vote transcended party politics.

In fact, for the past 80 years, the divide between the Democratic and Republican parties on Puerto Rico was defined largely in terms of support and opposition to statehood. But, in the wake of the plebiscite, pro-statehood activists were elected to the top leadership roles in both the Republican and Democrat parties. For the first time in living memory, both of the major American parties are united on the political future of our island.

The last obstacle, however, appears to be party politics on the mainland. Members of both major parties have voiced opposition to Puerto Rican statehood for various reasons, including the idea that federal representatives from Puerto Rico would be perpetually for one party or the other. Of course, Alaska was admitted to the union as a “perpetual” blue state while Hawaii was “destined” to be a GOP stronghold. Neither of those assumptions hold true today and, if we have learned anything from the recent election, it is that concerted efforts to address a community’s concerns can produce surprising results.

But even if partisans remain unconvinced, there are far greater issues at play. Now that Puerto Rico’s desire to become a state is clear to all who believe in the sanctity of free and fair elections, it is time for Congress to act. The alternative — maintaining the status quo by doing nothing — is a betrayal of the fundamental American principle that a legitimate government requires the consent of the governed.

As the democratically chosen governor of Puerto Rico, I will work every day to ensure that my constituents, the proud American citizens whom I serve, are finally granted the rights due them.

Ultimately, however, history will be on the shoulders of the 535 voting members of the 117th U.S. Congress.

I suspect that none of them would idly stand by if their constituents were stripped of their right to have a voice and a vote in the federal government. I urge each to think about why that same principle should not apply to my constituents and to respond accordingly to their call for equality.