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The long-debated possibility of statehood for Puerto Rico is gaining traction 鈥� a development sure to be watched closely by the more than 1 million members of the Puerto Rico diaspora who make their homes in Florida, not to mention the 5.8 million in the U.S. mainland, including the 37,000 in Maryland.
Yet even though Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is a backer of statehood, as are top Democrats in the House and Senate and some Florida Republicans, it鈥檚 unclear how much of a priority Puerto Rico would be if Democrats take control of the White House and Congress. The drive is complicated by a separate but often-paired push for statehood for the District of Columbia.
Both Biden and President Trump also have zeroed in on the island鈥檚 residents 鈥� though they can鈥檛 vote in the presidential election 鈥� in a聽聽the decisions of friends and relatives in Florida, a crucial swing state.
Advocates stress that statehood for Puerto Rico would mean Americans on the island could vote in presidential elections, have quick access to federal aid in crises and gain full representation in Congress. 鈥淧uerto Ricans get treated in many ways like second-class citizens,鈥� U.S. Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), who has introduced his own聽聽setting forth a process of admission for the island, said in an interview.
Statehood would not only affect the more than 3 million island residents, but also tighten the ties to those who have settled on the mainland. While New York still has the largest population of Puerto Ricans,聽the Puerto Rican population in Florida exploded by about 76% from 2000 to 2010, and by another 24% between 2010 and 2016, according to the University of Florida鈥檚聽
Puerto Ricans will decide first. America鈥檚 largest colony will hold its sixth non-binding referendum on Election Day, asking its residents whether Puerto Rico should be admitted as a state.
If the results favor statehood, then a formal petition would be sent to Congress, and it would be up to lawmakers to take the next step. The results from the last two referendums supported statehood with 61% in favor in 2012 and with 97% in favor in 2017.
Colonization, recession, natural disasters
The island has聽聽from 122 years of colonization resulting in an economic recession for the past 14 years, a slow federal response to the devastation from Hurricane Maria in 2017 that聽聽and little federal aid for the聽聽that hit Puerto Rico late last year and early into 2020.
Hurricane Maria led many Puerto Ricans to flee to central Florida cities such as Orlando and Kissimmee. Biden outlined his plans for Puerto Rico while holding a campaign event in Kissimmee.
Puerto Rico has also experienced other atrocities in its history.
Between the 1930s and 1970s, more than聽of women in Puerto Rico were聽in a secret eugenics campaign led by the U.S. government as a way to reduce the unemployment rate on the island by targeting working class women, according to reports by the聽Committee for Puerto Rican Decolonization, which is a United Nations initiative devoted to decolonization. During the 1950s, poor women on the island were used as experiments in the first聽聽without their knowledge, PBS has reported.
Since 1917, people living in Puerto Rico have been granted U.S. citizenship, but are not allowed to vote in presidential elections despite paying federal taxes for Social Security and Medicare.
Their congressional representation is only one non-voting member, Republican Rep. Jenniffer聽Gonz谩lez-Col贸n,聽in the U.S. House.
The decision about statehood is one that鈥檚 essentially up to the people of Puerto Rico, said聽Carlos A. Su谩rez Carrasquillo, a University of Florida political science professor.
But another factor that the U.S. needs to consider about statehood is if Americans on the mainland are ready to accept a predominantly Spanish speaking state, Su谩rez said. With xenophobic and racist language from the president about Latinos, Su谩rez wonders if the U.S. is ready to fully embrace Puerto Rico and its culture.
He points to the rhetoric from Trump, who has聽聽the island 鈥渄irty,鈥� 鈥減oor鈥� and corrupt, according to reports in聽The Miami Herald. The president declared that statehood for Puerto Rico is an 鈥渁bsolute no,鈥� after San Juan Mayor Carmen Yul铆n Cruz criticized him for his slow response to helping people on the island after Hurricane Maria, according to The聽
鈥淲ith the mayor of San Juan as bad as she is and as incompetent as she is, Puerto Rico shouldn鈥檛 be talking about statehood until they get some people that really know what they鈥檙e doing,鈥� Trump said during a 2018聽聽with Fox 海角社区app鈥� Geraldo Rivera.
Puerto Rico鈥檚 Gov. Ricardo A. Rossell贸 stepped down after hundreds of homophobic and misogynistic messages from the governor and his inner circle were leaked and then reported by聽
鈥淚s the U.S. willing to have a Caribbean Latin America state?鈥� Su谩rez asked. 鈥淎re they culturally willing to deal with that?鈥�
Seats in Congress
In Congress, statehood for Puerto Rico would result in two new senators and four representatives to the House. If the District of Columbia gains statehood at the same time, that would mean another two senators and one additional House member.
Projections are for five states to each lose one seat in the House after the 2020 Census is completed. They likely would include New York, Florida, Texas, Montana and Illinois, two political scientists at Texas A&M University, Dudley Poston and Nicole Farris, said.
But it鈥檚 unclear if statehood for Puerto Rico would be top on the agenda for Democrats if they take the White House and Senate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said that passing a sweeping campaign and anti-corruption reform bill is her聽聽for the next Congress, said Rep. John P. Sarbanes (D-Md.), who is at the helm of the reform package.
鈥淭he H.R. 1 bag is packed and by the front door,鈥� Sarbanes said in a recent interview with聽Maryland Matters, referring to the legislation number. 鈥淚f we win the election, we have to grab it and get it ready to go.鈥�
And the District of Columbia might be the one to become the 51st state, as the House passed a bill this June that would grant D.C. statehood. It鈥檚 a city with a large Black population that tends to vote for Democrats.
鈥淲ashington, D.C., will almost certainly be Democratic,鈥� Poston said of statehood for the District.
Soto, who is the first Puerto Rican representative elected in Florida, and whose district contains a large population of Puerto Ricans, said that Pelosi is aware of the growing support for making the island a state.
鈥淭he path to statehood is taking shape very quickly after a hundred-plus years of debating over this question,鈥� he said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced his support for making Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., states, along with Florida鈥檚 two Republican senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.
With Florida a crucial swing state in the race for the presidency, the Biden campaign聽urging residents to tell their family and friends on the mainland to vote.
鈥淲ith your vote over there, you help us here,鈥� the ads announce.
Partisan uncertainty
Many Puerto Ricans are skeptical the island鈥檚 status would change, said Mayra V茅lez Serrano, a political science professor at the University of Puerto Rico.
She adds that during the Obama administration, Democrats controlled the Senate and House, yet statehood failed to advance.
The Clinton administration repealed a controversial corporate tax break enacted in 1976 that allowed manufacturing industries to avoid paying income taxes on profits incurred in U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico. President Clinton signed a tax reform law in 1996 that would phase out the tax incentive over 10 years. A decade later, Puerto Rico fell into a massive recession and has not recovered since.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have political power in Washington,鈥澛燰茅lez said.聽鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 stop those changes in the tax code.鈥�
The island has a poverty rate of 44% and the unemployment rate is 2.5 times higher than the national average, according to the聽.
The 2006 recession eventually led to Puerto Rico鈥檚 debt crisis of nearly $70 billion. The Obama administration created a financial oversight board in 2016 that was made up of unelected officials that governed the island and controlled its funding.
The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, known as聽PROMESA, closed 283 schools, cut pensions and slashed funding for its public universities.
鈥淚t actually took away some of Puerto Rico鈥檚 autonomy,鈥澛燰茅lez said about PROMESA. 鈥淯nder the Democrats we even became more colonized.鈥�
She adds that another issue that lawmakers in Washington have to consider is Puerto Rico鈥檚 political ideology.
鈥淲e have a lot of people that are very conservative,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very unlikely that we鈥檙e gonna be a solid blue state. I think Democrats know that, too.鈥�
Pedro Cab谩n, a professor of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies at the University at Albany-SUNY, said he鈥檚 skeptical that the U.S. would want to add Puerto Rico as a state because of its large Latino population. He points to the聽聽of how Arizona and New Mexico became states.
Arizona and New Mexico were part of Mexico before the United States acquired that land. But it wouldn鈥檛 be until 1917 that the two territories finally became states, and that didn鈥檛 happen until the white population in Arizona and New Mexico outnumbered the Mexican population, Cab谩n said.
鈥淭he United States goal was always to eliminate and displace indigenous Mexican populations and replace them with Anglo farmers,鈥� Cab谩n said of Arizona and New Mexico.
But he said what happened to Arizona and New Mexico isn鈥檛 going to happen to Puerto Rico because it鈥檚 not a settler colony and the roots of its culture run deep and would be adverse to cultural change.
鈥楻esistance and resilience鈥�
And it鈥檚 no surprise, really. A聽聽found that a majority of Puerto Ricans still descend from the indigenous population of the island, the Ta铆nos. They were one of the first and largest indigenous groups in the Caribbean to suffer genocide from European colonization.
Puerto Ricans鈥� survival of slavery, Western disease and genocide is due to their mixed ancestry made up of the聽Ta铆nos, Spanish colonizers and the African slaves they brought, the study found.
鈥淒espite the efforts of Puerto Rico鈥檚 elite white class to create this notion of almost a modern Puerto Rico, a cosmopolitan one,鈥� said Cab谩n, 鈥淧uerto Rico as a nation really hasn鈥檛 changed.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a form of resistance and resilience that some people never really look at,鈥� he said.
