Puerto Rico: A Trampoline for Illegal Immigrants

In 1898, after the Treaty of Paris was signed and the Spanish-American war ended, Spain ceded its possessions from The Caribbean and the Pacific to the American government. As a result, the island of Puerto Rico passed on to become a US territory and a possession of the US government. In April of 1900, the US congress approved the Foraker Act, where it established a civil government and put an end to the military government. Afterward, all of the laws made by the Federal government where immediately put in to practice, such as the Law of Cabotage, which still controls all of Puerto Rico’s ports. Consequently, the Federal government controls every movement of the people and all merchandise that goes between PR and the US. With that said, PR’s government lost control over the laws that rule their society economically, such as their immigration laws. As a result, the government has no control over their immigration status and can’t decide who can or cannot come into the island, since their rights have become greatly limited. Finally, the percentage of illegal immigrants moving to the island with hopes of finding better jobs or using the island as a gateway to transport illegal drugs into the US, has increased over the past 100 years. This is where the issue lies.

Once Puerto Rico became a US territory, every native citizen was given American citizenship, which allowed Puerto Ricans to travel, work and even live in the United States without having to go through an immigration process. Also, the island began a process of “Americanization” that fructified their economy enormously. This is why more people from rural countries, such as The Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and even The Republic of China became interested in moving to Puerto Rico with hopes of finding a better life. With that said, there are two main consequences of immigration. The first being that once the immigrant finally escapes his or her country and arrives at PR, this person is immediately determined to be an undocumented immigrant. Since the majority of these people are so desperate for jobs and money, they end up working minimum wage jobs and in deplorable conditions. Secondly, the transportation of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin has affected the US directly since these drugs are being shipped from The Caribbean and other countries from Latin America to US territories.

At the moment, the laws of cabotage vigorously continue, preventing Puerto Rico’s government from enforcing control over illegal immigration on the island. Unfortunately, this function falls in the hands of the federal agencies such as the US Customs and Immigration Services, as well as the new agency that was created in 2003 called the US immigration and Custom Enforcement (I.C.E). This agency is the principle investigative arm of the US Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S) investigating and interior enforcements elements of the US Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Moreover, Puerto Rico has seen an unprecedented increase in drug related crimes between drug traffickers to the point where hundreds of people are murdered every month in an island of only 3.8 million inhabitants (a murder rate near 26 per 100,000). Without doubt, much of this is due to the ease of acquiring US dollars by the drug cartels in exchange for transshipment of illegal drugs and weapons. This is why, each day more news of crimes involving the use of high power weapons such as AR-15 rifles are heard. Since possession and use of weapons in PR is highly controlled and many of these are not imported legally to the island, but imported from the US by use of commercial couriers.

In order to solve the issue with immigration, or at least decrease the percentages of undocumented people in PR, two things must be done: the federal agencies that work with immigration laws in Puerto Rico should enforce stricter laws and penalties on immigrants that escape their countries illegally, or the U.S government should give Puerto Rico the freedom to choose their own immigration laws, since in reality, they are the ones being affected by this continuous burden.

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