American Citizenship

American Citizenship

Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary defines «citizen» as:

1. A native or naturalized person owing allegiance to, and entitled to protection from, a government.
2. A resident of a city or town.
3. A civilian, as distinguished from a public officer, soldier, etc. The same dictionary defined «Citizenship» as «The status of a citizen, with its rights, privileges, and duties.

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In the United States, citizenship may be acquired in one of two ways; either as a «natural» citizen or a «naturalized» citizen. Those that obtain their citizenship at birth are referred to as «natural» citizens, while those that acquired their citizenship, or become citizens at some time after their birth are referred to as «naturalized» citizens.

«Natural citizens at the same time, can be subdivided into two groups; those that acquired their citizenship by having been born in the United States, or under its jurisdiction, and those that acquired their citizenship by been born to parents that are, or were then, citizens of the United States.» ⁽¹⁾

In very simple terms, those individuals who are born in U.S. soil or under its jurisdiction are said to have received their citizenship under the doctrine of «jus soli» or by the «right of the land». Natural citizens who are not born within the United States, but who are born from parents who were citizens of the United States at the time of their birth acquire their citizenship under the «jure sanguinis» doctrine or by the «right through blood».

The process to become an individual «naturalized» citizen is a process controlled by the Department of Justice of the United States, where a qualified candidate is reviewed and approved by the Federal Court System. If successful the candidate is allowed to take an «Oath to Allegiance» in front of a judge to become a citizen.

Once approved the «naturalized» citizen has the same rights and duties (With a few exceptions) of a «natural citizen». «Collective Naturalization» happens when under congressional order, citizenship is granted to people who reside in a territory under United States sovereignty. This was the case as when American Citizenship was granted to the people of Puerto Rico under the Jones-Shaffroth Act of May 2, 1917.

The Constitution of the United States of America did not have a definition of «citizenship», and it did not have any rules as to how to obtain it. To address this issue, the Fourteenth Amendment was approved on July 9th,1868. It specified among other items under Section 1, that «All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside»

In a recent plebiscite held in 1993, 48.4% of electors voted in favor of an «ideal» type of commonwealth, 46.2% voted in favor of statehood, and 4.4% voted in favor of independence. Having American citizenship an essential element under both statehood and commonwealth, clearly 96% of the Puerto Rican electorate voted for the preservation of our American citizenship. When one realizes that even under independence, the preference of the Puerto Rico Independence Party is to maintain Puerto Rican as well as American citizenship, one can conclude that 100% -the totality of the Puerto Rican population demand and want to maintain the citizenship of the United States of America.

John A. Regis, Jr.
⁽¹⁾La Ciudadania en Puerto Rico, Reece B Bothwell, 1980There is a considerable amount of information in this subject. You will find some of this information under our «Documents» section or by using some of our Suggested Links section.

Vea en Puerto Rico Herald: http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues2/2005/vol09n08/Poll0908-en.html

February 25, 2005
Copyright © 2005 PUERTO RICO HERALD. All Rights Reserved.

A Second Look at Second-Class Citizenship

Next Wednesday, March 2nd, will mark the 88th year of the promulgation of the Jones Act, the legislation that granted American Citizenship for all persons born in the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico. Since 1917, this civil status for individuals, bestowed on them by the U.S. Congress, has permitted Puerto Ricans to enjoy the rights of any native or naturalized American – with several notable exceptions.

Puerto Ricans residing on the island have no representation in the U.S. Senate and no proportional representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Also, they are disenfranchised in the selection of a U.S. President every four years. For this reason, some Puerto Ricans refer to their U.S. Citizenship as «second-class» in nature, somehow of less quality than that of persons born in one of the fifty states. Others reject this idea as nothing more than political rhetoric intended to support one political status or another.

Virtually all Puerto Ricans covet their American citizenship and want to retain it for themselves and future generations. Even those wishing independence for Puerto Rico lobby for dual citizenship, should such a political status be realized. This can be seen in the glowing language accorded U.S. citizenship in platforms of the two major island political parties, the New Progressive Party (NPP) that favors statehood, and the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) that embraces the current status but lobbies for enhanced powers and more autonomy from the United States.

Both the PDP and NPP, which in recent years have together captured more than 95% of the local vote in elections and plebiscites, strongly support the maintenance of American citizenship for Puerto Ricans. Knowing how much voters cherish their U.S. Citizenship, politicians take every opportunity to herald it.

Currently, leaders of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), whose complaint is that the Commonwealth status is «second-class» because the Puerto Rican Government does not possess many of the powers of an independent country, are vociferous in defense of their citizenship. The present Governor, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, stated as much at a 1998 U.S. Senate hearing, «We should not be forced to give up our children’s U.S. citizenship so that we can get a fuller measure of self-government.»

His PDP predecessor in La Fortaleza, Sila Maria Calderón, whose administration was viewed as separatist by the Congressional leaders and the U.S. Department of State, told the Senate in 1998, «I have never felt like a second-class citizen. I consider myself a U.S. citizen. I appreciate and treasure my U.S. citizenship. I would never renounce or consider loosing that citizenship. I want my children and their children always to have it.»

American citizenship came to Puerto Rico in a trade-off that Congress concocted almost two decades after taking possession of Puerto Rico and other former Spanish colonies at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War in 1898. The Treaty of Paris, signed by the two warring powers, ceded former Spanish colonies Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands to the United States as territories. By the time of the Jones Act, Cuba had already been granted independence and a bloody insurgency opposed U.S. occupation in the Philippines. Puerto Rico was generally peaceful, cooperative and very poor.

In his 1995 definitive work on the subject, «Citizenship and the American Empire,» José A. Cabranes, now a sitting Judge in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, writes that the Jones Act was intended to send one message to the Philippines and another to Puerto Rico. Believing that the distant and hostile Philippines would never become a state, the act promised it eventual independence. On the other hand, the more pliant population of Puerto Rico, residing on an island in the strategically important Caribbean, required another approach.

By granting citizenship, Cabranes writes, «Congress proclaimed the future of Puerto Rico to be something other than national independence and thereby sought to resolve the question how the United States would deal with this part of its empire. The very word ‘citizenship’ suggested equality of rights and privileges and full membership in the American political community, thereby obscuring the colonial relationship between the great metropolitan state and a poor overseas dependency. But the creation of a ‘second-class’ citizenship for a community of persons that was given no expectation of equality under the American system had the effect of perpetuating the colonial status of Puerto Rico.»

In the Puerto Rico Constitution of 1952, American citizens residing on the island were granted local self-government and limited autonomy but they remained in an unincorporated territory. The document somewhat changed the relationship of Congress with the island government but did not diminish its ultimate authority. Neither were the civil rights of Puerto Ricans expanded to include a voice and vote in the national government.

American citizenship has allowed Puerto Ricans to travel overseas on an American passport and to freely settle anywhere in the United States to pursue the life of their choice. As residents of a state of the union, they immediately begin to enjoy full suffrage in local, state and national elections. In effect, a plane ticket can give to a Puerto Rican civil rights that the Congress has so far refused to grant to those who remain on the island. Many have boarded planes. Demographers tell us that there is a net exodus of Puerto Ricans from the island to settle in mainland locations. Some predict that by the end of the decade, off-island Puerto Ricans will exceed the number living on the island.

Puerto Ricans have met the responsibilities of American citizenship in full measure. The island’s men and women have rallied to the defense of the flag in its wars and have served with distinction. Over 200,000 have served and some 2,000 have paid the ultimate sacrifice, and the number is growing. Since the beginning of hostilities in Iraq, some 7,600 troops from Puerto Rico have served in harm’s way and 24 soldiers with island addresses or roots in Puerto Rico have been killed, the most recent on February 18th.

In spite of the frustrations Puerto Ricans might have about their political status and regardless of any disappointment they feel in not being able to vote in mainland elections, the value of American citizenship seems not to be in question. The debate is joined on how to ameliorate the «second-class» nature of the passport that Puerto Ricans carry. Some hold that only statehood will end the perceptual problem. Others hold that the immediate right to vote for President will help. Still others refuse to consider the problem and view such characterizations as nothing more than political rhetoric.

How do you consider the American citizenship of Puerto Ricans residing on the island?

History of American Citizenship in P.R.

On July 25, 1898 American Troops landed in Guanica, a small town in the southern coast of Puerto Rico. From Guanica, the troops moved until the Island was under American control. So, over one hundred years ago, the United States has had a direct relationship with the island of Puerto Rico.

Since the arrival of the American troops in 1898 many political changes have taken place in Puerto Rico. Some claim that through the years Puerto Rico has gained more «autonomy». While this is true in many ways, the truth of the matter is that the bonding of the Puerto Rico-United States relationship has continued to grow and strengthen through the years. Even with the creation of E.L.A., or our Commonwealth status in 1952, no changes were made to all the articles and provisions that regulated the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States under the Jones act of 1917. What the new Commonwealth, or E.L.A. status gained was a degree of internal administrative freedom pretty much the same way most states of the nation enjoy. Puerto Rico ceased to be a simple territory with absolutely no internal power. While Puerto Rico continued subject to the control by Congress under the Foraker and Jones Acts, the island pretty much enjoyed the freedom provided to any other state.

Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States, as a territory, under the «Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain» of December 10, 1898, known as the Treaty of Paris. Under its Article II it reads;

«Spain cedes to the United States the island of Porto Rico and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and the island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones.»

On April 12, 1900, under the presidency of William McKinley, the Foraker Law was approved. The Foraker Law is the first organic law approved by the United States Congress for Puerto Rico. Under the Foraker Law, Puerto Rico regains its civil government, but the island remains as a mere colony of the United States. Under this law, Puerto Rico was governed by a Governor, a Secretary and five cabinet members, all who were named by the President of the United States. A 35 member Legislative Assembly represented the people. This law also provided for the election of a Puerto Rican to represent the island in the Congress of the United States.

On March 2, 1917, under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the Jones Act was approved. This new organic law which granted numerous rights for residents of the island also included the granting of American citizenship to persons born in Puerto Rico.

On July 25, 1952, on the 54th anniversary of the arrival of American troops to Puerto Rico, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico goes into effect. In the Constitution under the preamble it reads in part;

«That we consider determinant factors in our lives the citizenship of the United States of America, and the inspiration to continually enrich our democratic will in our individual and collective enjoyment of its rights and prerogatives; the loyalty to the postulates of the Federal Constitution; the living together in Puerto Rico of two great cultures of the American hemisphere»

Puerto Rico has enjoyed a great, beautiful relationship with the United States since 1898. Our people in Puerto Rico enjoy American citizenship since March 2, 1917. This relationship has allowed Puerto Rico to develop economically, raise our standards of living, enjoy all the freedoms under the Federal Constitution, and to convert Puerto Rico into the real»shining star of the Caribbean».

John A. Regis Jr, August 1998

Additional ARTICLES on the History of American Citizenship in Puerto Rico:

• Chronology of events in Puerto Rico
• Article by Guillermo Moscoso
• Treaty of Paris
• Some truths about U.S. Nationality and citizenship in P.R.