The movement for Puerto Rican sovereignty was thrust into the spotlight after DailyMail.com revealed a campaign to pressure Donald Trump to grant the island territory its independence.
But Trump cannot unilaterally decide if Puerto Rico will remain a U.S. territory, become a state or be granted independence, according to an expert.
The Constitution requires an act of Congress to allow any U.S. territory to secede.
But that’s not stopping a pro-independence group from drafting and distributing a document titled as an ‘executive order’ and with a presumptive typed signature line for ‘Donald J. Trump.’
Secessionist efforts, however, are not popular in Puerto Rico or among Americans, a leader in the statehood movement revealed, as first reported on DailyMail’s podcast Welcome to MAGAland.
Most people prefer that Puerto Rico become a state within the U.S.A., he inists.
Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council George Laws Garcia said there is growing support among Republicans in Congress – both far-right and centrist – who are opening to the argument for statehood.
Laws Garcia said that statehood advocates and Puerto Rican leaders, including their Republican Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon met with about 25 Republican and Democrat legislators this month.
He said Gonzalez-Colon has even met with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a staunch pro-MAGA Republican, and she described him as a ‘friend.’
He also noted that the Puerto Rican leaders met with Sen. Rick Scott and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Overall, 59 percent of Americans support statehood for the island territory, while only 16 percent oppose, according to a YouGov poll.
The Puerto Rican Alliance drafted a seven-page proposal that detailed a 20-year transition of Puerto Rico from a U.S. territory to a ‘sovereign and independent’ nation. At least one congressional office took it seriously enough to send it outside the Capitol.
If the secessionist group had their way, Trump would also take it seriously and adopt the proposed order.
But the current president seems to have no intention of decreasing the land under U.S. control.
In fact, he has been pushing to have the U.S. acquire the arctic Danish territory of Greenland as well as have the U.S. take over the Panama Canal. The president has even joked about Canada becoming the 51st state.
Laws Garcia told DailyMail.com that the intentional leak of this document is an effort to give the unpopular movement more traction when Trump is looking to expand the country.
‘Last November, 58 percent, almost 59 percent of voters in Puerto Rico, supported statehood,’ he detailed.
Laws Garcia insisted: ‘The folks who wrote this memo… they’re basically representing a desperate and last ditch attempt to advance a political status that only about 11 percent of the population on the island support.’
In 2024, 12.3 percent of Puerto Ricans who voted said they would want independence with free associations, which essentially is what the drafted document details because this clause would provide a treaty with the U.S. outlining some sort of preferred conditions for the island.
While 30 percent said they would want independence without any conditions or links to the U.S. – a vast majority at 56.82 percent want statehood for Puerto Rico.
Even if Trump wanted to ‘dispose’ of the Caribbean island, he would not be able to take the action himself.
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution reads:
‘The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.’
Laws Garcia said this part of the Constitution makes clear that Trump cannot liberate Puerto Rico with the stroke of a pen.
‘That is unequivocal and absolutely clear constitutional language indicating that Congress has the sole power to dispose of the territories,’ he told DailyMail.com, lambasting the Puerto Rican Alliance for framing their efforts as an executive order.
‘So they’re in fantasy land,’ the former Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration explained. ‘They’re throwing, you know, chewing gum at the wall and seeing what sticks, and trying to confuse people and generate attention.’
‘The reality is they’ve completely failed at any effort to campaign and get majority voter support,’ Laws Garcia said. ‘They’ve had four opportunities since 2012, and each and every time they haven’t been able to do it.’
‘So now they’re just throwing cockamamie ideas out there that don’t make sense, are unconstitutional, and unfortunately, they’re just wasting people’s time and attention.’
Historically, statehood for Puerto Rico has been supported more by Democrats and progressives who see acquiring the island fully to be a benefit to their numbers in Congress.
But in recent years, the voting bloc there has leaned more red and elected a Republican governor.