Bipartisan Bill Seeks To Make Puerto Rico The 51st U.S. State

I just wanted to try to clarify one of the major problems Puerto Ricans struggle with.

First off, Puerto Rican's are white (Caucasian). Like myself.... Blond, Light hazel eyes & olive skin.
Put me in the sun for an hour and I look like a very ripe, red tomato.

They DO NOT consider themselves Hispanic.
They will NEVER, NEVER check-mark 'HISPANIC' on a government form.

Puerto Rico has a major illegal immigration problem with people coming from Haiti and the
Dominican Republic forming enclaves of Dominican/Haitian ghettos.

The tensions and animosity between the Puerto Ricans and the illegal immigrant communities
have been building for decades.

The lower class or poorer Puerto Rican's live among the illegal immigrants which grew into
a mixed race community. The mixed race children are primarily born with black or very dark skin.

Puerto Rican's look down on them and call them 'Malano's'. They feel much like how we do about
the people here from Mexico and South America.

The typical Puerto Rican stereotype on the mainland (United States), I feel stems from the Puerto Ricans (Malano's)
that migrate into the U.S.

Myself included. Growing up in New York, I thought all Puerto Rican's were dark skin/black,
uneducated people that worked in factories and stood on the corners screaming sexual obscenities when
you walked past them.

I remember my first trip to the island to visit family. I did not want to go, afraid my family was all going to look
like the people in the factory of the dress company I worked for.

To my surprise, I was totally stunned when I arrived in Puerto Rico and everyone looked like me.

Light hair, light eyes and olive skin.

Lorrie, do you think Puerto Rico should be a full State or independent? I don't really know enough about the issue. I only know that there was a national security issue that started our involvement in Puerto Rico and it grew from there. I also like our 50 states, our flag and 100 Senators. It would change a lot of things in the US to add Puerto Rico as a state, but if there is a good reason for it that would be good for Puerto Rico and good for the US, I would like to know. Thanks!!

:)

Whatever they come up with...NO taxpayer dollars to rebuild. Let investors do it and take over.

Too many Governors and Mayor's are bankrupting their cities and expect the Federal government to bail them out...or FEMA.

Many of those homes has no permits. They were added on to and tin roofs. They had no insurance. I have to buy Renter's insurance, Homeowner's insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, health insurance and I sure as hell do not want to pay one dime for those who do not.

Their telephone lines were falling over before the hurricane...no US taxpayer dollars to fix the whole Island.

NO! Why should they have a budget if Uncle Sam will rebuild their houses, water, electric and all infrastructure? It is a racket and a scam.

Should have been reined in a long time ago. They did not want to become a State until disaster strikes and then WE foot the bill. NO, come up with Plan B.

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Originally Posted by Judy

Lorrie, do you think Puerto Rico should be a full State or independent? I don't really know enough about the issue. I only know that there was a national security issue that started our involvement in Puerto Rico and it grew from there. I also like our 50 states, our flag and 100 Senators. It would change a lot of things in the US to add Puerto Rico as a state, but if there is a good reason for it that would be good for Puerto Rico and good for the US, I would like to know. Thanks!!

:)

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A full state.

Under the leadership of our government and being a member in Congress, Puerto Rico
can be a huge travel destination surplus. Like the Bahama's, Hawaii and Cuba 55 years ago.

And it's only a 3 hour flight from Miami.

The island is absolutely beautiful. Crystal blue water, I have never seen such beautiful oceans before.

What people don't realize, English is there 'unofficial' national language. You must be fluent in the
English language to graduate school. Both reading and writing.

All Puerto Rican's speak English

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Originally Posted by Beezer

Whatever they come up with...NO taxpayer dollars to rebuild. Let investors do it and take over.

Too many Governors and Mayor's are bankrupting their cities and expect the Federal government to bail them out...or FEMA.

Many of those homes has no permits. They were added on to and tin roofs. They had no insurance. I have to buy Renter's insurance, Homeowner's insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, health insurance and I sure as hell do not want to pay one dime for those who do not.

Their telephone lines were falling over before the hurricane...no US taxpayer dollars to fix the whole Island.

NO! Why should they have a budget if Uncle Sam will rebuild their houses, water, electric and all infrastructure? It is a racket and a scam.

Should have been reined in a long time ago. They did not want to become a State until disaster strikes and then WE foot the bill. NO, come up with Plan B.

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I agree Beezer.

The private money would flood into Puerto Rico if it became a state.

Puerto Rico's corrupt government has kept the island in poverty since 1918.

Investors stayed far away because the risk was too high.

But, I can tell you, my aunt has owned a candy store more than 30 years in one of the main hotels in
old San Juan and it's been extremely lucrative. She passed the store and her estate to her grand children after
her death. They sold the store and retired.

Thank you Lorrie. I'm with you then on this. I do think it would be a great American tourist location, better than Mexico. It might even be a nice retirement location, cheaper than Florida. I'm seeing possibilities that benefit both the US and Puerto Rico.

:)

Even If Housing Aid Ends This Week, Puerto Rican Evacuees Say They Won't Go Back

By TIM PADGETT • JUN 26, 2018

• http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net.../623646987.pngMiami state Representative Robert Asencio (left) with Luis Javier Hernandez, the mayor of Villalba, Puerto Rico (center) and Florida state Senator Victor Torres (right) inspecting roads in Puerto Rico still not cleared after last year's Hurricane Maria.
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Originally published on June 26, 2018 4:14 pm

Ariana Colón’s 1-year-old son Sebastian shows off his first word – “Mamá” – as she speaks with me over the phone from the hotel room in Kissimmee, Florida, where they’ve been living this year.

Along with Sebastian’s father, they arrived there shortly after Hurricane Maria devastated their home island, the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, last September.

The family has benefited from a federal program for disaster victims called Transitional Sheltering Assistance. It pays their hotel tab while they find gainful employment and permanent housing.

But meeting landlord conditions for that housing has proven as difficult for Puerto Ricans like Colón as it so often does for longtime Florida residents.

“The requirements are way too high for us,” Colón says.

“They’re asking for three times the rent right away. And we have to provide proof that we get paid three times the rent in one month. There’s no possible way for us to make that.”

READ MORE: Leaving 'Paradise': Will Exodus for Florida Hurt Puerto Rico More Than Maria Did?

Colón is 20 years old and expecting another baby in November. She was a nursing student back in Bayamón, Puerto Rico; for now she works in fast food here. Her partner is a barber. About 1,800 Puerto Rican hurricane evacuees like them receive shelter aid in Florida – and their situation gets urgent on Saturday, June 30, when the government is ending that assistance.

Those families are asking for more time in the program to build more savings to qualify for housing.

“It’s not like I’m staying here in the hotel all day enjoying the pool, enjoying Disney or nothing like that,” Colón says. “We came here to work.”

FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Agency – argues it has already extended the aid for Puerto Ricans once this year. But even if the help runs out this weekend, Colón says she won’t go back to Puerto Rico because, she insists, the island’s economy and infrastructure are still too shattered.

“The electricity goes and comes; the water as well,” she says. “It’s not stable. I don’t really want to risk that.”

She’s not alone. Many if not most Puerto Ricans in the shelter aid program say “they might be able to find a couch to surf on, or they’ll sleep in their cars,” said Jose Rodriguez, an Episcopal priest in Orlando who helps Puerto Ricans just arrived in Florida, with the group Vamos4PR.

“But very few of them want to return to Puerto Rico," he said.

Rodriguez told WLRN’s Sundial program last week that just about all the shelter assistance recipients feel they have little choice but to stay here.

“If you’re in a hotel at this point of the game, that means that you don’t have anything to go back to in Puerto Rico,” said Rodriguez. “The federal government has vetted you – they have verified that you truly have lost everything.”

TATTERED GRID
With the June 30 deadline looming, some Florida politicians are making fact-finding trips to Puerto Rico – gauging whether the island has even recovered sufficiently enough to absorb returning evacuees.

Last week, Miami state Representative Robert Asencio visited towns hard hit by Maria – and by what many call the U.S.’s lax recovery response.

“We met the mayors,” Asencio told me by phone from the island, “and quite honestly they say they’re still in recovery almost a full year after the storm.”

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net...806/ariana.jpgPuerto Rican hurricane evacuee Ariana Colon (right) her partner Jonel Sanchez and their baby son Sebastian in Kissimmee, Florida.
CREDIT COURTESY ARIANA COLON

Asencio said housing reconstruction is slow, and the power grid is still so tattered that Puerto Rico’s government is moving to privatize it.

What’s more, said Asencio, who is also Puerto Rican, the massive post-hurricane exodus is only continuing. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, and as many as 400,000 of them have migrated to the U.S. mainland since Maria – as many as 100,00 to Florida.

“There is a fear among elected officials here that things might just get simply worse here before they get better,” Asencio said. “There’s a good possibility there’ll be more people leaving as opposed to those coming back.”

Asencio visited Orocovis, in central Puerto Rico, where the mayor told him about 5 percent of its population has bolted to the U.S. mainland since Maria.

"I asked him, ‘Do you think those people will come back?’” Asencio said. “And he goes, ‘Well, what are they going to come back to?’”

Puerto Ricans living on the mainland can also vote in U.S. elections, and they largely vote for Democrats. That’s a potential benefit for politicos like Asencio, who’s up for re-election this fall. But he insists it’s also a boon for Puerto Rico, should those migrants’ votes influence Washington to be more attentive to the island.

Puerto Rican officials like Luis Vega Ramos, a member of the island’s House of Representatives from San Juan, agree.

“We’re losing our young, productive people to states like Florida,” Vega concedes. “But as we have more voting presence across the nation, we have more voices to keep Puerto Rico’s plight alive in the national debate.”

Colón, who says she’ll to register to vote here this summer, feels that way too.

“Over here you have more power to make changes for Puerto Rico,” she says.

And maybe, she adds, changes for Florida – like better access to affordable housing for U.S. citizen families like hers.

http://news.wgcu.org/post/even-if-housing-aid-ends-week-puerto-rican-evacuees-say-they-wont-go-back

NYC to help displaced Puerto Ricans as FEMA aid expires
By: JESSICA FORMOSO

POSTED: JUN 28 2018 09:12PM EDT
VIDEO POSTED: JUN 28 2018 09:11PM EDT
UPDATED: JUN 29 2018 02:25PM EDT


NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Liz Cruz left Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island and destroyed her home. On December 7, she, her husband, and children arrived in New York.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency placed hundreds of Puerto Rican families like the Cruz's in hotels across the city. But the assistance they are receiving from FEMA will run out on Saturday.

Cruz couldn't hold back her tears as she explained that her family is now scrambling to find a place to live. She said the uncertainty is frustrating.

In a statement to Fox 5, a spokesperson for the mayor's office said, "The Trump Administration abandoned the people of Puerto Rico. Our Mayor will not. We will shelter our fellow U.S. citizens and we will do all we can to help them to get back on their feet."

https://media.fox5ny.com/media.fox5n....0_640_360.jpg

More than 100 households are receiving FEMA's transitional shelter assistance, also known as TSA, according to the city.

Those families will be receiving direct transportation directly from their TSA hotel rooms to hotel rooms operated by the Department of Homeless Services.

Cruz said she was told that her family will be picked on Friday. The city did confirm to Fox 5 that Cruz and her family will be taken to a shelter. The city said it will provide Puerto Rican families with case management services to connect them to housing, social services, and educational supports.

More than 130 Puerto Rican households that did not qualify for the FEMA TSA program are in the process of applying for shelter. Some are already in the shelter system.

Senator Gustavo Rivera released this statement after the original publication of this article:

"With two days remaining until the June 30 deadline, FEMA has once again failed to put forth any sort of long-term actionable plan to help those Puerto Rican families displaced by Hurricane Maria across the country, including those in New York City, transition into permanent housing.

In the void left by FEMA, New York City, which is facing a homelessness and housing crisis of their own, has stepped up and developed a plan to provide a safety net to those Puerto Rican families who will be evicted by the federal government on Saturday.

However, it is critical that this plan is implemented efficiently so that these families, who have been forced to leave their homes, receive the resources and services they desperately need.

While this is a step in the right direction, there’s still a lot of work to be done and I am committed to continue working with our City and State governments to ensure my fellow Puerto Ricans have access to the resources they need to rebuild their lives."

http://www.fox5ny.com/news/displaced...ricans-housing

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Originally Posted by Judy

Lorrie, do you think Puerto Rico should be a full State or independent? I don't really know enough about the issue.

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After all these years, I think we should make up our minds. We are asked to bail out a separate country that is not obligated to pay all the taxes the people in states pay. But their government needs to be in line with the policies of the United States. Still I fear the adding of a apparently backward country to have voting power to change the direction of our country. So they need to earn the right, not just demand statehood.

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Originally Posted by Judy

Thank you Lorrie. I'm with you then on this. I do think it would be a great American tourist location, better than Mexico. It might even be a nice retirement location, cheaper than Florida. I'm seeing possibilities that benefit both the US and Puerto Rico.

:)

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Absolutely and much safer than Mexico.

Did you know you can drive around the entire island in 6 hours or across the island in 3 hours?