Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean region in which inhabitants were Spanish nationals from 1508 until the Spanish–American War in 1898, from which point they derived their nationality from United States law. Nationality is the legal means by which inhabitants acquire formal membership in a nation without regard to its governance type; citizenship means the rights and obligations that each owes the other, once one has become a member of a nation. In addition to being United States nationals, persons are citizens of the United States and citizens of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico within the context of United States Citizenship. Though the Constitution of the United States recognizes both national and state citizenship as a means of accessing rights, Puerto Rico's history as a territory has created both confusion over the status of its nationals and citizens and controversy because of distinctions between jurisdictions of the United States. These differences have created what political scientist Charles R. Venator-Santiago has called "separate and unequal" statuses.
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Puerto Rican citizenship in the context of Foraker Act
The Foraker Act (Pub. L. 56–191, 31 Stat. 77, enacted April 12, 1900), officially called the Organic Act of 1900 and most commonly known by the name of its sponsor, Senator Joseph B. Foraker, (R-Ohio), is an organic act of the 56th United States Congress that was signed into law by President William McKinley on April 12, 1900. The Act replaced the military government of Puerto Rico, which was established by the United States after the annexation of the archipelago and island during the Spanish–American War in 1898, with a civil insular government under the continued federal jurisdiction of the United States as the local administration of an unincorporated territory. It served as the primary organic law for the government of Puerto Rico and its relation with the United States until it was superseded by the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917.
The Foraker Act established a civil government in Puerto Rico modeled after the federal government of the United States. It divided the local government of the unincorporated territory into three branches: an executive, consisting of a Governor and an 11-member Executive Council appointed by the President of the United States, a legislative, composed of bicameral Legislative Assembly, with the Executive Council as its upper chamber and a 35-member House of Delegates elected by the residents of Puerto Rico as its lower chamber, and a judicial, headed by a chief justice and a district judge appointed by the President. The Act created the office of Resident Commissioner, a non-voting member to the United States House of Representatives elected by the residents of Puerto Rico. It also established Puerto Rican citizenship and extended American nationality to Puerto Ricans.
Puerto Rican citizenship in the context of Puerto Rican migration to New York City
The first Puerto Ricans known to have migrated to New York City did so in the mid-1800s when Spain ruled Puerto Rico. Another wave of Puerto Ricans migrated to New York City after the Spanish–American War in 1898. Though no longer subjects of Spain, they were now citizens of an American possession and needed passports to travel to the contiguous United States.
That was until 1917, when the United States Congress approved Jones–Shafroth Act which gave Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico U.S. citizenship with certain limitations. Puerto Ricans living in the Mainland United States, however, were given full American citizenship and were allowed to seek political office in the states in which they resided. Two months later, when Congress passed the Selective Service Act, conscription was extended to the Puerto Ricans both on the island and on the mainland. It was expected that Puerto Rican men 18 years and older serve in the U.S. military during World War I. The Jones–Shafroth Act also allowed Puerto Ricans to travel between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland without a passport. The advent of air travel was one of the principal factors that led to the largest wave of migration of Puerto Ricans to New York City in the 1950s, known as "The Great Migration."