My mistake, didn't know Puerto Rican's had full citizenship. Still, the question is statehood. If they want a vote at the Federal Level, then choose statehood. If they want to be independant, then revoke citizenship and move on.
Dred Scott essentially ruled Blacks were not human and therefor were not afforded natural rights (via Citizenship). Pretty nasty, and a long way from the rights of territories.
Puerto Ricans are full citizens of the US. They do not need a visa to visit the mainland and you don't need one to visit the island or to live there, it is US territory.
The terms of their territorial status mean that they are under US federal law, and all of the US federal institutions are present on the island. The question is, since they are US citizens, shouldn't they have full statehood rights...
But so far the preference of people living on the island is to preserve the status quo. There is almost no support for independence, there is a fairly strong movement for statehood, but so far the majority prefer to renegotiate the terms of the territorial agreement but remain a territory. The rough political split is between the island's equivalent of the Republican Party, for statehood, and the island Democrat equivalent, for territorial status. Thats not exactly fair, but its roughly correct I believe.
Pro-statehood voters are almost equal to pro-status-quo, but not quite able to beat them in an election on that issue.