DDonald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden was meant to be a triumphant return to the city where he made his name. If anything, the incident has reignited simmering tensions on the island of Puerto Rico, where locals say they feel like second-class citizens just days after the historic US election.
A comedian’s comments at President Trump’s rally this week describing Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash” may have sparked local anger at the Republican candidate, but the people who live there are channeling their anger through the ballot box. will not be able to express it.
Puerto Rican residents will be among more than 3 million Americans whose votes will not be counted when a president is elected next week.
Most residents of U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands) are citizens and pay federal taxes. Many have family on the mainland.
However, these territories do not have a vote in the Electoral College, which ultimately determines the president.
“They’re basically just captivated by whatever Congress or the president wants them to do,” said Luis Fuentes-Lower, a law professor at Indiana University. “Being a citizen means being part of a political community. Not in America.”
It is one of the few things that connects disparate territories, from Puerto Rico, home to 3 million people in the Caribbean, to American Samoa, with a population of just 50,000 people, which is closer to Australia than the United States.
Karina Claudio Betancourt, a student in Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan, said residents have no say in Washington’s decisions that affect their daily lives.
“The election affects us because it determines what the president will or will not do with Puerto Rico at this time,” they say.
Betancourt points to Donald Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island, and the Obama administration’s creation of a commission to manage government funding.
“Basic transportation, health care services, and things that affect our daily lives are decided by the U.S. Congress and this fiscal oversight committee, and we don’t get to vote on any of them.” they say. “People are fed up.”
Guam resident Philip Gilbert says it’s unfair to keep territorial voters disenfranchised.
“Not being able to vote really feels like being taken away,” he says. “As a military member and after serving my country, I feel this is especially unfair.”
Mr. Gilbert, 47, registered as a resident of Washington state and was able to vote absentee while he was stationed in Guam with the Navy, but he lost his right to vote in presidential elections once he retired from service in the territory.
Charles Alailima serves on the board of Democratic Rights. The organization is one of a growing number of organizations working to increase the influence of Territorial residents, 98% of whom are people of color.
“There’s another thing going on like this among people of color, people in that area, right?” he says. “Unless[you]actually have citizenship and the right to vote, you will always be considered other than a full member of the United States.”
Alailima said his homeland of American Samoa may be too small to become a state on its own, but Congress could start by asking its people whether they want to become a permanent part of the United States. says.
“If they put it before the people, 99% of people would say we’re going to be a permanent part of the United States…(and) the United States is going to say that the territory is going to become a nation. We have to adjust the laws to make it possible.” It’s a serious part of the political process. ”
But it is also possible to give each territory a say in the presidency by amending the constitution and giving them electoral votes, as happened in Washington, D.C.
Many Puerto Ricans who moved to the mainland will be able to make their voices heard on November 5th, with large communities in Pennsylvania and Florida targeted in both campaigns.
Meanwhile, the people who remained in this territory made many efforts to become their own nation. The island has more people than the five smallest states combined, and statehood is popular among many, but the final decision lies with Congress, and recent efforts have stalled.
These delays and permanent disenfranchisement mean that some Puerto Ricans are eager to leave the U.S. orbit completely.
On Tuesday, a seventh non-binding referendum on state status will be held, this time in full and Partial independence is at stake for statehood.
“It’s unfair that all these decisions are being made as if we were savages, as if we were a people without self-determination,” Betancourt said. “I don’t want to vote for the United States. I want to vote for the president of Puerto Rico.”
Additional reporting by Marvic Cagurangan from Guam
