Posted on 02/14/2017 9:02:58 AM PST by cll
Although Puerto Rico is on its way to holding a status plebiscite over the summer and the governing New Progressive Party has petitioned Congress for Puerto Ricos admission as a state, some argue the island will have a higher chance of becoming a state if U.S. lawmakers were to declare Puerto Rico an incorporated territory en route to statehood.
Right now, the dominant argument among all sectors is that Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory, but pro-statehood lawyer Gregorio Igartúa, who has taken several cases to the courts that seek to grant more rights to Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico, presented arguments in favor of incorporating Puerto Rico.
~ snip ~
...Igartúa said the Task Force erred in its assessment that Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory, arguing that the legal relationship Puerto Rico has with the U.S. is that of a de facto incorporated territory in transit to statehood. Moreover, Puerto Rico has a federalist relation with the U.S. as the 50 states do since the islands constitution was adopted in 1952, he said. According to Igartúa, the Task Force has ignored numerous federal statutes and actions as well as other judicial rulings that already treat Puerto Rico as a state despite court rulings to the contrary.
The degree of incorporation of Puerto Rico to be like a state can be considered by implication [to be so] strong as to exclude any other view than that it is an incorporated territory of the United States, he said in a letter to the Task Force.
When the U.S. took over Puerto Rico in 1898, through the Treaty of Paris, the island had been an overseas province of Spain for more than 400 years..Igartúa said within that legal source of authority, Congress began a gradual process of incorporation,
(Excerpt) Read more at caribbeanbusiness.com ...
But hard to find...
It is a sad irony that Obama and the Clintons supported the terrorists (FALN) who murdered Americans in the name of Puerto Rican independence.
We already have Hawaii we dont need any more guaranteed Democrat welfare states, sorry.
The Pacific Islands, Samoa, Marianas, Guam, would be Chinese colonies within two weeks of independence. Guam is too valuable a piece of real estate to give up (in my opinion...)
Only PR is (marginally) large enough to qualify as a state. The others are not. Most Caribbean islands maintain some loose connection with Britain or France. Only the larger islands are completely independent... except Aruba and Curazao, which I believe finally cut ties with Netherlands.
Yes 46.00%
No 54.00%
Which non-territorial option do you prefer?
Statehood 61.16%
Free Association 33.34%
Independence 5.49%
There were 515,348 blank and invalidated ballots counted alongside the 1,363,854 ballots. Under Puerto Rico Law, these ballots are not considered cast votes and are therefore not reflected in the final tally.[1]
“Statehood won the 2012 referendum.”
IIRC, it was two-part vote.
Puerto Rico’s status really needs to be dealt with. Enough with politics on the island and in DC.
There needs to be a straight-up vote. The choices are:
Statehood
Territory Status
Independence
There is no NOTA option and ballots that are left blank are not counted as for or against the referendum.
The option that gets 50% of the vote (plus 1) goes forward to DC for consideration. Failure to hit 50% (plus 1) means that terriorial status remains. The next time a referendum can be held on the matter would be five years from the time of the last referendum.
Lastly, DC would be mandated to hold a roll call vote approving Puerto Rico’s statehood, continued territorial status or its independence. They could not ignore the referendum. They have to (one way or the other) act upon it instead of playing games.
I did not wish to offend a fellow conservative with my comment, andI apologize in advance for the following comment, which is a repeat of my previous disparaging comment:
The problem with Puerto Rico is that it is full of Puerto Ricans.
No 2 dhimmicrat senators. No way. Better they become independent. We’ll throw them a bone now and for then.
My niece is married to a Puerto Rican.
The whole family are virulent leftists.
So if I walked in to get a drivers license, what language will the person behind the desk be speaking?
Spanish or English.
Why are you so freaking obsessed with Puerto Rican statehood! Does what America wants matter at all? We don’t need to add a foreign territory to a union that is so perilously close to caving from within. We don’t want another impoverished, culturally foreign, non-English state voting for socialist Democrats. Done! Shut up already! :s
“Shut up already!”
Ah, no.
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