Michelle de la Isla, mayor of Topeka, Kansas, is running for Congress, hoping to represent District 2 in her Midwestern state. If she wins, she’ll be the first member of Congress of Puerto Rican descent from her state. De la Isla has lived in Kansas since 2000, when she became a student at Wichita State… Read more »
New York Councilman Ritchie Torres is the Democratic nominee for the 15th District in the South Bronx, the congressional seat Rep. Jose Serrano has held since 1990. The 15th District is a consistently Democratic-voting district, so it is expected that Torres will replace Serrano in the November election. Torres has indicated that he will be… Read more »
Puerto Rico has three viable status options: statehood independence (with or without a Compact of Free Association) current territory status Federal law, official documents and members of U.S. Congress have been explicit that Puerto Rico is a “possession” of the United States. This ownership implies some responsibility on the part of the United States, but… Read more »
The New York Times published a claim last weekend that has resurfaced with some frequency over the years, drawing outrage each time: the notion that the U.S. has the power to sell Puerto Rico or otherwise “divest” its most populous territory, home to over three million U.S. citizens. New York Councilman and congressional candidate Ritchie… Read more »
Elaine Duke, former acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), revealed in a New York Times interview over the weekend that President Trump asked whether the United States could “divest itself” of Puerto Rico. Duke, who served in the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Defense for 30 years, claimed that the president… Read more »
Back in May, NPR reported that Puerto Rico was the lowest state or territory in responses to the 2020 Census. While 59% of American households in general had responded, only 8% of Puerto Rican households had filled out their census forms. More recent data suggests that 20% of Puerto Ricans have responded by now. But… Read more »
Puerto Rico plans to allow tourists to visit again beginning on July 15. However, there are still some restrictions in place as the Island opens up from pandemic shut down. Puerto Rico has had 8,745 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of this writing, and continues to have small numbers of new cases and fatalities. Accordingly,… Read more »
Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee about Puerto Rico’s priorities in fiscal year 2021. The U.S. government’s fiscal year begins on October 1st. The budget each year is built on information gathered from leaders such as Gonzalez-Colon. Nutrition assistance The Trump administration has proposed $1.9 million for the… Read more »
The upcoming Puerto Rico plebiscite, scheduled for November 3rd, asks Puerto Rican voters to say “yes” or “no” on statehood. Following the vote, Congress should take action to make the preferred status official. How do the people of the mainland U.S. feel about Puerto Rico as State #51? Rasmussen Reports, a respected news polling organization,… Read more »
Independence has never been a very popular option in Puerto Rico. It has not received as much as 6% in any status vote, and no independent candidate has ever won as governor. Independence has gotten the following percentages of votes in the plebiscites that have taken place so far: July 23, 1967: 0.6% November 14,… Read more »
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