Puerto Rico should become America’s 51st state, or it should be freed to be its own sovereign nation.
That’s the opinion of many on the island, and a growing number in congress, as Hurricane Maria became the deadliest natural disaster to hit US soil in more than a century.
Nearly 3,000 Puerto Ricans, who are American citizens, died in connection to the Category 4 storm that hit the island about a year ago. The updated death toll confirms what many people already knew: that the original death count of 16 was way off, and that the local and federal government failed to protect the lives of millions of US citizens who live on the island.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló acknowledged the new death toll, but President Trump seemingly didn’t care.
Trump — when asked directly by a reporter — downplayed the news and reiterated that his administration “did a fantastic job” and suggested that Puerto Rico was grateful.
They are not.
More than 3 million US citizens live in Puerto Rico with fewer constitutional rights than anyone living in one of the 50 states. Americans on the island can’t vote for president in the general election or elect a voting member of Congress.
But the federal government’s response to Hurricane Maria has shown that the problem is even uglier than that: Puerto Rico’s status as a US territory, which is rooted in racist legal rulings, has created a class of citizens whose lives are valued less, and whose deaths can be ignored by America’s most powerful leaders.
The island became a territory 118 years ago, and Congress established local self- government in 1952, launching a 65-yearfailed experiment in autonomy without democratic accountability.
As a territory Puerto Rico does not participate in the national economy on an equal footing or level playing field with the states, nor can it compete equally in the international markets. Territorial status is constitutionally temporary and typically does not lead to economic self-sufficiency.
Incredibly, residents of Puerto Rico pay more than $3 billion in federal payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, as well as import-export and commodities taxes—but benefits under those and other federal programs are lower than in the states. Puerto Rico also does not have access to the same bankruptcy protections as states, an oversight that became a big problem as the island has struggled under its huge debt levels.
Puerto Rico is asking to become a US state. In fact, political leaders have been asking for a clear path to statehood since the 1960s. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama supported statehood. It was even written in the 2016 Republican Party platform.
But in reality, Republicans will be slow to back statehood knowing its congressional delegation will likely be comprised of Democrats. That’s too bad because statehood wouldn’t just benefit Puerto Rico. It would also benefit the mainland United States by easing the strain on the budgets and healthcare systems of Florida and other states.
And like Hawaii, wouldn’t this island paradise actually make a proud 51st star on the American Flag?
