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You Get Out What You Put In, According to the Court |
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< | -- By AdrianHernandez - 26 Apr 2022 |
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> | -- By AdrianHernandez - 05 Jun 2022 |
| | The difference in what it means to be a citizen in Puerto Rico, Texas, Wyoming, DC, Northern Marina Islands, and so on is arguably a subject that isn’t discussed enough. The recent decision by the Supreme Court in the US v Vaello-Madero case—where the court decided that Puerto Rican citizens are not eligible to receive funds from the Federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program—however is a place to get the conversation started. Being a citizen of the United States doesn’t mean you are seen as equal in the eyes of the government. |
| | What Should Be Done? |
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< | Puerto Rico becoming a state appears to be the best way to resolve any discrepancies in treatment of its citizens. However, this is another can of worms that the people of Puerto Rico have had a lot of differing opinions on. |
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> | Ideally, citizens should be treated the same, regardless of if they are in a territory or in a state. Citizens in territories already don’t get an opportunity to vote and receive representation, so the least the government could do is provide them the same protection as if they were in the states. Puerto Rico becoming a state can also resolve any discrepancies in treatment of its citizens. However, this is another can of worms that the people of Puerto Rico have had a lot of differing opinions on. |
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< | However, something that our legislature should do when implementing these programs is clearing up what citizens are meant to benefit from this program and what exactly are the distinctions, if any. For Puerto Rico, it’s hard to have a voice when they don’t have any representation in the legislature. Ideally with this case, it should spark the conversation on how citizens are being treated differently because of where they reside. |
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> | Even during life-threatening situations, the US government has treated its people in territories as second class citizens. The United States held back billions of dollars from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands after they were impacted by hurricanes in 2017. Even recently, during the pandemic, the US government has still maintained that the territories will continue to receive caps on the funding for their Medicaid financing. |
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< | It can’t be overlooked that a lot of the territories of the United States are made up of a largely ethnically minority population. Programs that exclude citizens of these territories don’t seem to be discriminating on the superficial level, but they’re essentially kicking people who are a suspect class. In the Puerto Rico example, though there are Latine people in both the United States and Puerto Rico—only one of them is predominately Latine. A territory made up of a historically and currently powerless group that is under United States control. |
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> | The reason why the citizens of the Puerto Rican island don’t receive all the same benefits of those in the states, including SSI eligibility it appears is because of the Insular Cases. These cases create a racial classification like the Plessy and Korematsu cases. There has been a lot of criticism that the Supreme Court hasn’t overturned them. Even though the US government denies it is using the Insular Cases in the Vaello-Madero case, their existence leaves the door open for them to be used against Puerto Rico’s predominately-Latine population.
It can’t be overlooked that a lot of the territories of the United States are made up of a largely ethnically minority population. Programs that exclude citizens of these territories don’t seem to be discriminating on the superficial level, but they’re essentially kicking people who are a suspect class. In the Puerto Rico example, though there are Latine people in both the United States and Puerto Rico—only one of them is predominately Latine. A territory made up of a historically and currently powerless group that is under United States control. |
| | There shouldn’t be a distinction of what a citizen benefits from because of where they live—especially when it comes to our Federal programs. At the end of the day, the United States benefitted or is currently benefitting from having these territories, so it’s unfair to treat its citizens differently. If they don’t mean to treat them the same as citizens in the states, then why are they giving them citizenship to begin with?
Though it’s easier said than done, the best way to resolve this problem is to get rid of the antiquated distinctions of citizens based on where they live. It’s almost a caste system of the United States. Though one can (arguably) move easily, they shouldn’t be punished for it if they are living on the same land that has a United States flag planted on it. |
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I think the best route to improvement is to put the draft in touch with at least a bit of the no insubstantial literature on you subject. The complete absence of links,leaving the reader only your words and one Supreme Court opinion, makes it hard for you to do justice to the subject. |
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< | You might address along the way some of the legal questions involved. We assume that past legislation can apply without modification to future-admitted States because they are States. We assume that when Congress wants to provide benefits to the populations of particular places, it must designate them, which it does all the time. Does it matter what Congress intended when it passed, for example, the Social Security Act, with respect to Americans not resident in a State? Or is its intention irrelevant for some (here unstated) reason? Does the history of application of federal statutory law in Territories rather than States of the US matter? We are aware that some US constitutional rights do not apply to US citizens who are resident in foreign States. How does the principle you are propounding affect this question? May, for example, the US take the foreign real estate of US citizens without paying just compensation as determined by a US jury?
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