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Pierluisi Calls for Equal Treatment for All American Citizens Regardless of Residency

Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner, Pedro Pierluisi, took to the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on May 17 to call for “equal treatment for all American citizens, regardless of where they reside.” Citing the territory’s ineligibility for core components of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, Pierluisi asserted that the unequal treatment of U.S. citizens in federal programs targeting the most vulnerable populations amounts to “geographic discrimination.” Read More »Pierluisi Calls for Equal Treatment for All American Citizens Regardless of Residency

Possible U.N. Vote on the Horizon

On June 20, 2011, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization called on the United States to expedite a process that would allow “Puerto Ricans to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence[.]” This was not the first time these nations highlighted the lack of democratic freedom in Puerto Rico to the United Nations – the Special Committee on Decolonization has approved text calling on United States to expedite Puerto Rican self-determination every year since 2006. Will a similar proposal be approved this June?
Read More »Possible U.N. Vote on the Horizon

Puerto Rico: A Territory of the United States

The legal foundation of Puerto Rico’s status within the United States can be found in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, commonly known as the “Territory Clause” — “The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.”Read More »Puerto Rico: A Territory of the United States

And Yet More Confusion over “Commonwealth”: Puerto Rico’s Plebiscite History

Three referenda held in the 20th century to provide Puerto Ricans with self determination were inconclusive due to confusion over “Commonwealth” proposals that are different from the current governing arrangement and different from one another and were later determined by Federal officials to not be viable.Read More »And Yet More Confusion over “Commonwealth”: Puerto Rico’s Plebiscite History