Former governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuño,

By Marianela Toledo | Florida Watchdog

MIAMI — The former governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, says Puerto Rican statehood is a civil-rights issue that voters in the island territory will have an opportunity to decide.

“… We’ll ’ll bring that issue anyway we can,” Fortuno said, adding that he is waiting on Congress to act on statehood.

He spoke to Florida Watchdog Friday morning during the Hispanic Leadership Network, an annual event held in Coral Gables.

During the interview, he expressed his support an immigration reform proposal from the so-called “Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators that includes Marco Rubio,R-Florida, John Mc Cain,R- Arizona, Chuck Schumer, D- NY, and Bob Menendez, D-NJ, among others.

“There should be a way for the citizenship” said Fortuno, in contrast to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of the event organizers. In his recent book “Immigration Wars”, Bush says citizenship should be an award, but it shouldn’t be given to those who entered the U.S. illegally.

Fortuño, a long-time supporter of statehood, was narrowly defeated in his bid for re-election byAlejandro Garcia Padilla.

“President Obama included in his budget some money to have another referendum. We’ll see what happens,” he said.
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