Main points from Press Conference.
Excerpts from Press Conference
Hernan Padilla, MD
• A simple and compelling objective: achieving full equality in citizenship under the Constitution for the American citizens of Puerto Rico through the admission of the Island as a State of the Union.
• We believe that our Nation has one Constitution and one citizenship for all Americans.
• The American citizens of Puerto Rico should have the same rights, responsibilities and opportunities as the American citizens who reside in the 50 States.
• The Island’s current status as an unincorporated territory of the United States deprives American citizens residing in Puerto Rico of fundamental rights such as the equal protection of the laws, participation in the election of the President, and proportional representation in Congress.
• The Supreme Court created two classes of territories: incorporated, which were intended to become States, and unincorporated, such as Puerto Rico, which according to the case law could be ruled by Congress indefinitely.
• The unprecedented category of “unincorporated territory” was created by a segregationist Court to prevent a territory inhabited by people of Hispanic origin from becoming a part of the United States.
• In 1917 Congress granted American citizenship to Puerto Ricans it was generally understood that the Islands had been incorporated into the United States.
• But in 1922 a U.S. Supreme Court that upheld racial segregation determined that Puerto Rico was still an unincorporated territory because its Justices could not conceive of a faraway island inhabited by Hispanics, rather than Anglo-Saxons, to be a part of this Nation.
• American Citizens who reside in Puerto Rico are subjected to geographic discrimination, segregationist policies and a deficit of democratic rights.
• The U.S. Constitution does not protect the U.S. Citizens who reside in Puerto Rico in the same manner it protects other U.S. Citizens. (SCOTUS 1921-22)
• Today the residents in Puerto Rico continue to be subject to a political system that denies them full equality as U.S. Citizens and participation in their national government.
• With the participation of 77.6% of all registered voters, the residents of Puerto Rico rejected the continuation of the current territorial status, often called “commonwealth,” with an absolute majority of 54%.
• The plebiscite results yielded an overwhelming preference for statehood which garnered 61% of the votes over the options of independence in free association with the U.S. and full independence.
• With this vote the American citizens of Puerto Rico removed any possible consent that may have existed to continue being governed under a political status that is both undemocratic and discriminatory.
• We join the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles in its call for The White House and Congress to take action to resolve Puerto Rico’s political status problem in a manner consistent with the results of the plebiscite held last November.
• Our ultimate goal is to achieve full equality in citizenship under the Constitution for the American citizens of Puerto Rico through the admission of the Island as a State of the Union.
• The United States is one Nation with one Constitution and only one citizenship for all Americans.
• The continued political segregation of a community of 3.7 million American citizens of Hispanic origin is a national problem that deserves prompt attention and expedient action.
• We urge President Obama to include Puerto Rico’s political status problem in his State of the Union address on February 12th.
Conservadores en campaña por la estadidad | Proyecto Estrella Said,
January 30, 2013 @ 1:42 pm
[…] Aseveraron que los padres fundadores de Estados Unidos no hubieran permitido que a ciudadanos americanos, como los casi cuatro millones que residen en Puerto Rico, se le negaran derechos fundamentales correspondientes a su ciudadanía. Lee las expresiones del Dr. Padilla aquí. […]
Hernan Padilla Said,
January 30, 2013 @ 3:59 pm
Gracias por enfatizar un referencia a los fundadores de la Nación Americana.
Tampoco podemos olvidar que el Presidente Reagan, en 1980 afirmó que el estatus actual de Puerto era una condición que no era natural (un-natural state)
Hernan
Conservatives Press for Puerto Rican Statehood | Puerto Rico Report Said,
February 8, 2013 @ 1:13 am
[…] Dr. Padilla expressed the same sentiments, saying, “The unprecedented category of “unincorporated territory” was created by a segregationist Court to prevent a territory inhabited by people of Hispanic origin from becoming a part of the United States.” He went on to say that “in 1922 a U.S. Supreme Court that upheld racial segregation determined that Puerto Rico was still an unincorporated territory because its Justices could not conceive of a faraway island inhabited by Hispanics, rather than Anglo-Saxons, to be a part of this Nation.” […]