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Does the US treat the Puerto Ricans like a full citizen

Discussion in 'News' started by EarlAlexander, Sep 17, 2018.

  1. EarlAlexander

    EarlAlexander New Member

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    Puerto Ricans are by law citizens of the United States and may move freely between the island and the mainland. As it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950.

    If the Puerto Ricans are by law United States citizens why don't they have a vote in the Congress, remember the United States constitution gave US citizens right to vote and be voted for anywhere in United States Territory then why is Puerto Rico different.

    I would love to hear your view about it, is it right or wrong?
     
  2. Light

    Light New Member

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    Not yet @EarlAlexander. It has been 101 years since the citizens of Puerto Rico were collectively naturalized as U.S. citizens under the Jones Act of 1917. The act was meant to deal with the fact that Puerto Rico was neither a U.S. state nor an independent country. “It was foreign to the United States in a domestic sense,” said a 1901 Supreme Court decision.
    But citizenship created contradictions, including that Puerto Rico still feels something less than fully American. Puerto Ricans cannot vote for the U.S. president when they live in the territory, but they can when they reside in one of the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia. And in crisis—notably during Puerto Rico’s 2017 bankruptcy, and the federal response to the devastation of the island by Hurricane Maria—the inequality of Puerto Rico is often exposed, and questions are asked again about the Jones Act.
    Chief among them, what did the Jones Act actually do?
    To understand the Jones Act, it is best to start with a clarification of what the law was not.
    It was not the first Congressional statute conferring U.S. citizenship on persons born in Puerto Rico. It was not the last such statute. And the law did not change Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. territory. But the Jones Act, in its collective extensive of American citizenship to Puerto Rico residents, proved to be a crucial glue, cementing enduring relationships between residents of Puerto Rico and of the United States.
    Federal citizenship laws treat Puerto Ricans as members of the U.S. political community.
     

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