Lack of transparency, holes in bill text and brief community input period for Islanders are red flags
WASHINGTON, DC – The Power 4 Puerto Rico coalition, composed of diaspora and allied groups advocating for Puerto Rico, today called on U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva to hold extensive public hearings in both the Island and DC, with simultaneous Spanish interpretation, towards addressing the flaws of the Puerto Rico Status Act discussion draft legislation. The Committee’s plans to fast-track deeply problematic legislation is troubling and runs counter to the transparency and thoughtfulness that a serious decolonization process merits.
“The Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act would provide for a democratic, fair, transparent, and inclusive decolonization process for the island. Unfortunately, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer discarded this legislation. As a handful of Members of Congress head to Puerto Rico for meetings, the least Chairman Grijalva can do to ensure some modicum of transparency is to hold formal public hearings and for those to be available in our native Spanish language,” said Power 4 Puerto Rico Director Erica González. “Our coalition remains extremely concerned about the lack of clear details around the consequences and transitions in each of the status definitions in the proposed draft decolonization legislation. While the ‘consensus’ agreement contains positive elements that attempt to move the conversation forward, Puerto Ricans cannot be expected to make such a historic and life-altering decision with half information. This would not only be unfair, but also further injustice.”
”A host of details that are fundamental to the right of Puerto Ricans to fairly chart their future are absent from the draft, including what, in the scenario of annexation, would be the controlling language of Puerto Rico, taxes imposed and phase-in timeline, the implications for national identity, as well as other real-life changes Puerto Ricans would face,” said Melissa Mark-Viverito, Chief Policy Officer at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, of Chicago. “We’ve also flagged provisions regarding citizenship in several sections, as well as elements of the independence and free association options, including Congress overstepping by trying to define what kind of republic the Island should create. Hearings and more are in order as part of a detailed decolonization process and substantive changes must be made to the legislative text if the expectation is that, before the world, the Puerto Rican people and diaspora would even begin to consider rallying for it.”
The coalition includes after this statement a list of various troubling elements contained in the proposed bill to decolonize Puerto Rico. The details left out or that are confusing in the draft legislation include major questions that have been raised for years.
“The clarity that is needed on whether Spanish will be the language of government, schools and courts is not only a question of Puerto Rican identity but also a critical legal matter,” said Tamara Cabán-Ramirez of the Hispanic National Bar Association. “In fact, bondholders sued over a disagreement on which version of the Puerto Rico constitution would prevail given different interpretations over the borrowing limit. Despite the fact that voters in Puerto Rico drafted and ratified the island’s carta magna in Spanish, U.S. courts decided English would dominate in that case. We need clarity on what the controlling language legally would be in a statehood scenario for Puerto Rico.”
The draft proposal includes a provision eliminating the counting of blank ballots. “There are people in the island who do not necessarily support the three decolonizing options on the ballot in this bill but who still deserve the right to be heard. This is why we had called for a constitutional assembly at the front of a serious, inclusive self-determination process, to include all voices,” said Power 4 Puerto Rico Senior Advisor Federico de Jesús. “In 2012, close to half a million ballots were cast with one of the questions left blank to protest the faulty nature of that political exercise. Though the Department of Justice under both Trump and Biden agreed that was a flawed referendum, now Congress would be denying the voices of voters who may support other options, or indeed other ways to decolonize the island, and prevent them from being counted.”
“Any decolonization process must be conducted in a transparent, inclusive and respectful manner –or not at all,” said Jessie Fuentes, Co Chair of The Puerto Rican Agenda of Chicago. “A public engagement visit, with less than four days notice, rings hollow, especially for the masses of Puerto Ricans who do not have millions of dollars to be in Washington, DC every day. Furthermore, any failure to hold extensive, formal public hearings in Spanish –the language of the people who are directly impacted– would be a further denial of the right of Puerto Ricans to accurate, detailed and upfront information to determine their future.”
“As an organization committed to protecting democracy, whether in Florida or Puerto Rico, we strongly urge Chairman Grijalva and Members of Congress to respect the right of Puerto Ricans to know each and every status implication, on paper, and for the Puerto Rican public to make their voices heard in a way that is substantive, including through official hearings. This is the right and democratic thing to do,” said Marcos Vilar, President of Alianza for Progress.
“Imagine if the discussions and deliberations in the early years of this nation, the Constitutional Convention of 1787, had been reduced to a few days and left basic questions unanswered. As Puerto Ricans, we have not endured 124 years of U.S. colonialism to be cheated out of a thorough, serious decolonization process. Unfortunately, the draft that has been presented –one that is 51 pages– already signals a tilt towards one particular status, an insult to Puerto Ricans and allies who have been beating a drum for a fair process with detailed information. If Congress keeps imposing a weak process and deeply-flawed legislation over the right of Puerto Rican people to fairly self-determine, Puerto Ricans will see right through it and reject this growing mess,” said Maria Gutiérrez, Senior Director of Membership of CASA.
“The lack of proactive transparency around this rushed public forum in Puerto Rico raises many questions. When the sign-up link was released, some Puerto Ricans who immediately tried to enter the site experienced filled-up spaces. There is no clarity about who gets to testify, how there will be balance and who is making decisions on all of this. Let us be clear –a fly-by-night perfunctory process will not generate the trust of the Puerto Rican people. We insist on decolonization that is truly democratic and that includes public, official hearings that center not the typical political party officials, but instead, civic and grassroots organizations in Puerto Rico,” said Edil Sepúlveda, Co-founder and Spokesperson, Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora (BUDPR).
House Natural Resources Committee Members announced they will travel to Puerto Rico June 2-4 to meet with political leaders and hold a public forum to discuss the draft legislation announced last month at the US Capitol. The confirmed Members of Congress attending this trip are Chairman Grijalva (D-AZ), Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González (R-PR), and others.
To read our statement on the announcement of this draft bill, click HERE.
###
The issues in this draft bill include a lack of details and clarity, language that attempts to tilt Puerto Ricans toward a particular status option, and Congress framing what type of republic Puerto Rico would establish.
Blank ballots will not be counted (p. 5)
This is problematic because it prevents, and marginalizes, voters who disagree with the options or the process from expressing their voices.
Reference to statutory citizenship of current residents: Even the insular cases say the equal protection clause applies the same to Puerto Ricans and therefore there is only one type of citizenship (p. 6)
Reference to “permanent Union” under statehood: This is a political, not legal term, historically used to lean voters into choosing annexation. (p. 8)
In statehood definition, there is no reference to language, taxes, Olympic representation (P. 8)
The role of the Department of Justice is (p. 11) problematic because the DOJ insists on adding the territorial option and saying that a free association compact is a form of independence, which the draft bill clearly states otherwise.
Congress cannot instruct the independent Puerto Rico to conduct a constitutional assembly or instruct its internal processes in any way (p.15-16)
Congress cannot impose what kind of constitution or form of government an independent Puerto Rico can have (p.16-17)
The language in the bill seems to imply that U.S. citizenship cannot be transmitted, even though a U.S. citizen who happens to have a child in another country may do so. (p. 23)
The draft has 51 pages, which is a wink to annexationist voters and thumbs its nose at neutral decolonization.
The draft imposes the way that the new freely associated state will ratify articles instead of leaving it to the constitutional process established by Puerto Rico (p. 38)
This legislative proposal states a 1-year transition in the event of statehood. (p. 42)
It is impossible to transition out of 124 years of colonial rule, impose federal taxation, draw congressional lines, and phase in federal rules and regulations that do not currently exist in the island in one year. This is misleading to the Puerto Rican people as it presents this status option as a quick fix.
Puerto Rico shall remain unincorporated until admission (P. 42)
This is also meant to tilt the scales towards annexation because every territory has become incorporated into the union before it is admitted. Texas wasn’t because it was independent first. All the rest were incorporated, meaning that they paid federal income taxes without representation for a period of time until Congress decided to admit them as states.
No mentions:
Zero mention of Puerto Rican Diaspora participation in this vote.
No mention of Jones Act applicability or lack thereof in status options.
No mention of how Puerto Rico’s debt will be treated.