Puertoricans wear the same uniform and fight in the same wars as all Americans so that folks can continue to say ignorant stuff like the comment above. My great grandfather did it. My grandfather. I did it. And I’m sure the tradition will continue.
From Title 8-ALIENS AND NATIONALITY
CHAPTER 12-IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY
SUBCHAPTER III-NATIONALITY AND NATURALIZATION
Part I-Nationality at Birth and Collective Naturalization
All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after April 11, 1899, and prior to January 13, 1941, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, residing on January 13, 1941, in Puerto Rico or other territory over which the United States exercises rights of sovereignty and not citizens of the United States under any other Act, are declared to be citizens of the United States as of January 13, 1941. All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are citizens of the United States at birth.
It's not that the people of Puerto Ricans are lesser americans. It's that Puerto Rico itself as an institution has less rights. If a Puerto Rican moves to Alabama, they get the same rights and privileges, like voting, as anybody else.
Yes, they get to die for the USA. But they don't get a say like real citizens - no congressmen, no electoral votes, no senators. They do get to pay taxes though. Before you rant about how that's not important, I'd like to remind you of a certain group of English citizens who didn't have representation but were allowed to die and pay taxes for England.
Real is probably the wrong term here, but certainly a citizen without the full suite of rights granted to you. If you have all the obligations without all the rights, you are a second class citizen. It's frankly absurd that someone can live within the US as a "citizen" without getting have meaningful representation.
Many Americans are second-class citizens because they live in areas where even if they DID vote, it wouldn't count for anything.
If Puerto Rico and DC were suddenly made part of California, nothing would change but suddenly they'd be "first class citizens"? (Besides now paying federal income tax)
That's just factually not true. Yes, the presidential election is fucked because the electoral college means that >70% of americans' votes are meaningless, but at the state and local level elections make a HUGE difference. And yes, that's not ideal, but it's a bit flippant and defeatist to write off all elections just because the presidential elections are screwed up.
In the strictest sense of the word they _are_, but they lose a significant portion of their rights as citizens, even after serving their mandated sentence and "paying their debt to society" or whatever. I would actually argue that ex-cons aren't citizens in the practical sense specifically because they lose out on a bunch of rights they could freely exercise before their conviction.
And before we get into a debate about whether ex-cons "deserve" rights, their sentence is supposed to be them paying their debt to society. Why shouldn't their rights be restored after that?
That's a different argument though. Punished or not, they are still citizens - so clearly whether you can or cannot vote doesn't change your citizenship.
> Real is probably the wrong term here, but certainly a citizen without the full suite of rights granted to you.
I acknowledged the thing you are objecting to before you started objecting. If you want to bikeshed a loosely used term after it's been acknowledged as being the incorrect term - have fun.
From Title 8-ALIENS AND NATIONALITY CHAPTER 12-IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY SUBCHAPTER III-NATIONALITY AND NATURALIZATION Part I-Nationality at Birth and Collective Naturalization
All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after April 11, 1899, and prior to January 13, 1941, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, residing on January 13, 1941, in Puerto Rico or other territory over which the United States exercises rights of sovereignty and not citizens of the United States under any other Act, are declared to be citizens of the United States as of January 13, 1941. All persons born in Puerto Rico on or after January 13, 1941, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are citizens of the United States at birth.