Yet Another Example that the US Government considers Puerto Rico a territory
Throughout the status debate saga of Puerto Rico, the Popular Democratic Party has insisted, time and time again, that Puerto Rico’s status is not that of a territory, but of a pact of common agreement between Puerto Ricans and the United States. They use the territory’s body politic name as proof, arguing that the Estado Libre Asociado, or Freely Associated State, is more than a mere territorial possession of the US.
But then there’s reality and the official policy of the US and its government. The Government of Puerto Rico has been repeatedly told it is a territory and today we stumbled upon another example of how clear the US when it comes to its regard and consideration of Puerto Rico’s status. You see, every year college students across the nation go online to fafsa.ed.gov to apply for their federal financial aid to fund their studies. When they do so they are greeted with this login page:
If you take a close look at the link next to the Social Security number field you see this link:
If you’re a member of the PDP you might be expecting to have your beliefs validated as you click the link. Except when you do, you see this:
Notice anything missing? Puerto Rico is expressly excluded from this list. None of the mentioned jurisdictions are territories of the US, therefore their citizens are not automatically considered US citizens. Freely Associated States, as far as the US is concerned, are independent countries with which it has entered into formal, bilateral and voluntary agreements. Puerto Rico meets none of these requirements. The PDP should recognize that and allow the status debate to move on. But at this point we’re just repeating the obvious.
