As Puerto Ricans ponder their future, they’ll need to separate fact from fiction | Guest Opinion

During my tenure on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, I faced deeply entrenched conflicts that had existed for centuries and that seemed insurmountable.

Puerto Rico’s current undemocratic status as a U.S. territory is not one such issue.

Puerto Rico’s lack of voting equality and democratic representation is a longstanding problem. The greatest democracy on Earth should be able to resolve it.

To do so, we need to get our facts straight.

In the closing days of the 117th Congress, the U.S. House passed a bill that calls for a referendum in Puerto Rico offering voters a chance to end the island’s territorial status by becoming a state or a foreign country.

One of the options on the table was something called “sovereignty in free association.” It is a form of independence that a few other countries (all with tiny populations) have chosen. Per this bill, it would also be an option for Puerto Rico, should its voters choose it.

Problem is, there was a lot of misinformation that does not comport with the reality of free association under U.S. law. For example, during House debate, one congressional supporter noted that the bill includes “dual citizenship rights” that are “like we have in the Marshall Islands or Palau.”

This could not be further from the truth.

The United States has not given the populations of the Marshall Islands and Palau “dual citizenship rights” with our country. In fact, in no “freely associated” country can virtually all of the citizens have dual citizenship rights with the United States. Residents of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) are citizens of the Marshall Islands. Residents of the Republic of Palau are citizens of Palau.

In other words: your country, your citizenship. It’s common sense.

Palau and the Marshall Islands are sovereign nations. Compacts of free association allow the U.S. military authority over the land, air and expansive waters of Palau and the RMI, effectively controlling their borders, influencing their foreign policy and providing the United States with access to distant lands for military bases.

Our free-association agreements with the nations of Palau and the Marshall Islands, however, do not grant their citizens dual-citizenship rights with the United States. In other words, American citizenship follows the flag.

Puerto Rico’s voters need to know this before they cast a ballot. They need to know that there is no precedent for the United States to give virtually all the citizens of any sovereign nation U.S. citizenship, potentially in perpetuity.

Voters in Puerto Rico also need to know that if a bill purports to provide American citizenship rights to the citizens of a hypothetical new nation of Puerto Rico, it may be making an unrealistic offer that the United States will not honor.

Making promises that cannot be kept would be misleading, unfair and even cruel. It would also certainly be unproductive in resolving the current undemocratic arrangement.

The U.S. State Department has made it clear that U.S. citizenship in a newly independent Puerto Rico cannot exist. The State Department’s reasons include, but are not limited to, foreign policy, immigration and diplomacy complications involving the protection of Puerto Rico’s three million U.S. citizens. Imagine that: a foreign nation composed entirely of 3 million American citizens!

It doesn’t make sense for the United States or Puerto Rico.

Overwhelmingly, Puerto Ricans have shown that they want to retain their American citizenship.

If Puerto Ricans choose statehood once again — as they have done three times during the past decade, most recently in 2020 — they should rightfully become full-fledged members of the American family.

The supposed promise of this bill when it comes to American citizenship and free association is highly suspect.

As Congress reconvenes, the debate over Puerto Rico’s future is poised to continue.

Let’s have this discussion with honesty and integrity. Let’s start by getting the facts right.

lleana Ros-Lehtinen represented Florida’s 27th Congressional District from 1989 to 2019 and chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2011–2013. She is a senior advisor with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and part of the firm’s subpractice on U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States.