The concept of independence for Puerto Rico has recently received increased attention…in the states.
Yet the people of Puerto Rico do not want independence. They instead highly value their U.S. citizenship and easy access to their many friends and family who have moved stateside. In 2024, Puerto Ricans voted in support of statehood for the fourth time in a row in an island-wide plebiscite.
Independence has never gotten more than 12% of any vote on political status in Puerto Rico, and even this small percentage is possibly inflated by the misperception in Puerto Rico that U.S. citizenship might be preserved in a new nation of Puerto Rico. There is no such guarantee.
No Independence Party candidate has ever won a race for governor or resident commissioner. In fact, the Independence Party on the Island is too small to be considered among Puerto Rico’s major political parties. The Party’s results are equivalent, numerically, to the popularity in mainland politics of the Green Party or the Libertarians. There are also independence movements in California and Texas.
Although respect and dignity for the U.S.’s most populous colony is important to the people who live in Puerto Rico, these values simply do not translate into support for independence. Instead, people prefer the security, continued connection, and democratic integrity of statehood.
Easy to say when you live in a state
People living in the states can support a romanticized independence, confident that they will not directly experience any of the losses it would entail.
Periodic editorials published stateside by U.S. based writers of Puerto Rican heritage have urged independence for the U.S. territory. In 2022, a Puerto Rican born author described in The Atlantic an expansive vision of Puerto Rican independence that would require reparations “to cover many areas, large and small: paying for the repair of the power grid; liquidating $70 billion in debt; undergirding Puerto Rico’s pension funds; and expanding the health-care system.”
This position is easy to articulate from the comfort of a home office in a place where democratic freedoms are a given and where access to prized U.S. citizenship is not imminently at risk. But it’s a theoretical position for the author, who has the luxury of taking it from afar.
The quiet majority of Puerto Ricans who live in the fifty states also support statehood. By moving to a state, they have essentially chosen statehood with their feet, and, given the ease of visa-free movement, continue to choose statehood every day. Their actions speak more loudly than the voices of periodic columnists.
Some Puerto Ricans, such as Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who represents one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the country, take issue with what Torres has called a “privilege of denying Puerto Ricans the rights” that are enjoyed stateside.
“If the people of Puerto Rico want to be independent, that means there is no special treatment and no special benefits,” said Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) in a congressional hearing in 2022.
Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-AR), the current Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, agreed. He emphasized that “the people of Puerto Rico should understand what choosing independence or sovereignty entails: that is, separation from the U.S. federal system and the related benefits.”
Such statements cast doubt on the prospect of continued resources and expansive reparations for a newly independent Puerto Rico, particularly without a seat at the table in the government that would grant them.
A Compact of Free Association is Not a Back Door
There is a misperception that U.S. citizenship could be preserved for Puerto Ricans if the U.S. were to sign a Compact of Free Association with a new nation of Puerto Rico, just like the COFAs it has signed with three tiny Pacific Island countries. There is no precedent for such an arrangement.
A Foreign Minister of one Freely Associated State (FAS) has testified before Congress that there cannot be overlapping U.S. citizenship in the FAS as the relationship is between two “totally independent nations.” Constitutional scholars and U.S. officials agree that U.S. citizenship cannot be protected and guaranteed if Puerto Rico were to become a sovereign nation.
In a 2023 Congressional hearing on renewal of the three COFAs, there was talk of expediting U.S. citizenship for citizens of the FAS who moved to a state. One witness, Peter Watson of the Dwight Group, explained, “Compact citizens living in the US face challenges green-card holders do not face. A pathway to citizenship afforded to immigrants from non-Compact nations is not afforded to Compact immigrants.” Yet in 2024, when the three COFAs were renewed, even this idea was ultimately rejected. People born in the FAS do not get U.S. citizenship, and if they move to the states they have a tougher path to get U.S. citizenship than immigrants from other countries do.
Injustice
It is true that Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, are not treated as equals with their fellow U.S. citizens living stateside under U.S. federal law. One notable example is how slowly disaster assistance gets to Puerto Rico.
When considering flaws in U.S. disaster support, however, it is worth noting that the United States federal government does not provide support to the Dominican Republic or Cuba at the same level it has for Puerto Rico, problematic as that implementation has been. Imagining that the U.S. government will treat a sovereign Puerto Rico better than the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, Cuba or the Dominican Republic is simply not a gamble that the vast majority of the people on the ground in Puerto Rico appear willing to take.
As a state, Puerto Rico would be on an equal footing with all other states, fully protected by the U.S. Constitution. Federal assistance would increase automatically during periods of increased need, such as in the aftermath of hurricanes, along with the oversight and administrative mechanisms inherent in federal programs that do not currently include Puerto Rico. The many Puerto Ricans serving in the U.S. military would be able to vote for their Commander in Chief. The dignity of equal treatment and equal rights – along with empowerment that comes from equal responsibilities – would be a constant presence. These improvements would be impactful and tangible, and especially noticeable to people who don’t already have them.
Cuba, Iran, Venezuela Call for Puerto Rico Independence
With all due respect to the “Islanders” living in the states, I would suggest that if you REALLY want to help, you should keep your opinions to yourself when it comes to the problems on the island, UNLESS you are willing to RELOCATE here and then vote your opinions and/or wishes.
We islanders have a few more obstacles than you in the states, and that is why you shouldn’t try to persuade us.