(No. 132) (Approved November 17, 1997) AN ACT

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1 (S. B. 676) (No. 132) (Approved November 17, 1997) AN ACT To amend subsection 1 and repeal subsections 2 and 3 of Article 10 of Title II of the Political Code of Puerto Rico of 1902, as amended, in order to clarify the concept of citizen of Puerto Rico and for other purposes. STATEMENT OF MOTIVES Subsection 3 of Article 10 of the Political Code of Puerto Rico of 1902, as amended, establishes that Spanish subjects residing in Puerto Rico on April 11, 1899, who did not choose to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on or before April 11, 1900, according to the terms of the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain, entered into on April 11, 1899, are citizens of Puerto Rico. Under the Treaty of Paris and the Federal statutes implemented (Foraker Act, Jones Act and Act 600 which established the legal structure for the present status), the Government of Puerto Rico has never had the legal authority or the constitutional capacity to define, establish or regulate a nationality or a citizenship based on a nationality in reference to the persons born or residing in Puerto Rico. In the measure that Article 10 of the Political Code of Puerto Rico gave the impression that the Government of Puerto Rico has said capacity, only reiterated the Federal Law; since the Legislature of Puerto Rico is a creation of a Federal Law and has no national sovereign authority whatsoever to create or regulate a separate nationality.

2 2 To imply or pretend that Puerto Rico has said authority diminishes instead of increasing the true sovereignty and the self-determination of the people of Puerto Rico under the Constitution of the United States. Until Puerto Rico has its own full government based on a plebiscite process sponsored by the United States Congress, the people of Puerto Rico should not be misinformed of the political reality of Puerto Rico that it is one of local self-government. Therefore, it is appropriate to review subsection 3 of Article 10 of Title II of the Political Code of Puerto Rico of 1902, to clearly reflect the reality under the current political status of Puerto Rico as it has developed since our Island fell under the sovereignty of the United States, and the Federal code of laws which has been in effect since It is imperative for the laws of Puerto Rico to reflect that in the measure that Puerto Rico continues under the sovereignty of the United States, the nationality and citizenship of the persons born in Puerto Rico shall be determined by the United States Congress based on the constitutional authority of the federal government to control the nationality of all persons whose political and legal status is subject to the national sovereignty of the United States (Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution). In this manner, neither the United States nationality of the persons born in Puerto Rico nor the present United States citizenship of the Puerto Rican people arises from Act 600 or from the creation of the Commonwealth; instead, the current United States nationality of the persons born in Puerto Rico as of today, still arises from the Treaty of Paris, and the United States citizenship of the persons born in Puerto Rico proceeds from Federal statutes. Although the American citizenship as it exists under the Federal Act in 1952 is mentioned in the Preamble of the Constitution of Puerto Rico and in the rest of its contents under the Law of Puerto Rico and the Federal Law, the American Citizenship of the persons born in

3 3 Puerto Rico was established prior to, and is not a product of the Commonwealth nor of the Federal Relations Act of Puerto Rico. In fact, starting with Section 202 of the United States Nationality Act of 1940, and at present under Section 302 of the Nationality and Immigration Act of the United States of 1952, the American Citizenship of the persons born in Puerto Rico is the result of a separate Federal statute (at present codified under 48 U.S.C. 1402) which is not part of the statutory scheme that established the organic relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States (Title 48 U.S.C. 731 et seq., known as the Federal Relations Act of Puerto Rico). Although the American Citizenship of the persons born in Puerto Rico is mentioned in the provisions of Title 48, in 1940, the statutory provisions which conferred the American Citizenship to persons born in Puerto Rico were no longer part of the Jones Act and in 1952 the federal citizenship statute continues in effect under Code 48 U.S.C. 1402, separate from the Federal Relations Act of Puerto Rico. Therefore, consistent with the authority exercised by the Government of Puerto Rico under the Constitution of the Commonwealth, of Article 10 of the Political Code of Puerto Rico, is a residential statute and the term citizenship refers to the residence of a person instead of to his/her nationality. This measure provides for the amendment of subsection 1 and to repeal subsections 2 and 3 of Article 10 of Title II of the Political Code of Puerto Rico of 1902, in order to simplify the interpretation of who are citizens of Puerto Rico, providing by law that every person who has the nationality and is a citizen of the United States and a resident within the jurisdiction of the territory of Puerto Rico shall be a citizen of Puerto Rico, and to eliminate the content of the present subsections which have become obsolete with the passing of time.

4 4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF PUERTO RICO: Section 1.- Subsection 1 is hereby amended and subsections 2 and 3 of Article 10 of Title II of the Political Code of Puerto Rico of 1902, are hereby repealed, to be read as follows: Title II Citizenship and Domicile Section 10.- The citizens of Puerto Rico are: 1. All persons who have the nationality and are citizens of the United States and residents within the jurisdiction of the territory of Puerto Rico shall be citizens of Puerto Rico. Section 2.- This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.

5 5 January 28, 1999 José A. Figueroa-Lugo, Director of the Office of Legislative Services of the Legislature of Puerto Rico, hereby certifies to the Secretary of State that he has duly compared the English and Spanish texts of Act No. 132 (S.B. 676) of the 2nd Session of the 13th Legislature of Puerto Rico, entitled: AN ACT to amend subsection 1 and repeal subsections 2 and 3 of Article 10 of Title II of the Political Code of Puerto Rico of 1902, as amended, in order to clarify the concept of citizen of Puerto Rico and for other purposes, and finds the same are complete, true and correct versions of each other. José A. Figueroa-Lugo