And we don't. Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth, and Puerto Ricans are citizens of the US.
Is PR legally equivalent to Virginia, in that sense?
"In my opinion, Congress has no existence and can exercise no authority outside of the Constitution. Still less is it true that Congress can deal with new territories just as other nations have done or may do with their new territories. This nation is under the control of a written constitution, the supreme law of the land and the only source of the powers which our government, or any branch or officer of it, may exert at any time or at any place. Monarchical and despotic governments, unrestrained by written constitutions, may do with newly acquired territories what this government may not do consistently with our fundamental law. To say otherwise is to concede that Congress may, by action taken outside of the Constitution, engraft upon our republican institutions a colonial system such as exists under monarchical governments. Surely such a result was never contemplated by the fathers of the Constitution. If that instrument had contained a word suggesting the possibility of a result of that character it would never have been adopted by the people of the United States. The idea that this country may acquire territories anywhere upon the earth, by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies or provinces,—the people inhabiting them to enjoy only such rights as Congress chooses to accord to them,—is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius, as well as with the words, of the Constitution." - Justice John Harlan, dissenting in the Insular Cases, 1901
Pennsylvania is also a Commonwealth and look at the Idiot we are stuck with! RENDELL!
YOU have a situation where you enjoy the benefits of American citizenship without the responsibilities.
You don’t pay the same taxes other Americans do, but enjoy the same benefits. Puerto Ricans can rgister and vote in American elections when they are here on the continent, but they can work in Puerto Rico and not pay the same kind of taxes Americans pay.
Puerto Rico should be treated like any other piece of land - it should either be a state or be given its independence.
I don’t know of any reason why Puerto Rico should enjoy a special status within the U.S.
Right. This is a solution in search of a problem.