Like it or not, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and have been since 1917 but U.S. Republican Representative Ginny Brown-Waite from Florida apparently thinks that speaking Spanish and being varying shades of brown makes your a foreigner.

A week ago, Brown-Waite sent out a press release about the economic-stimulus package pending in Congress. She said the package shouldn’t give $600-per-person checks to residents of Puerto Rico and Guam.
“I do not believe American taxpayer funds should be sent to foreign citizens who do not pay taxes,” Brown-Waite said.

Ok she forgot about Guam too.

On Monday, the Puerto Rican House voted 29-16 for a resolution expressing the “most forceful and the firmest repudiation” of her “highly discriminatory” statements and asking her to retract them.

Fellow Congresspersons and Ricans, Nydia Velasquez and Jose Serrano sent out a joint statement.

“Congresswoman Brown-Waite’s remarks about U.S. citizens of Puerto Rican descent were a painful reminder that America is still struggling to realize the strengths of its own diversity. Today it should be common knowledge that Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States and contributing members of our national economy and armed forces. It is simply inexcusable for a member of the United States Congress to call the Puerto Rican people ‘foreigners,’ and unimaginable that an apology has not been issued,” Congresswoman Velázquez said. “As a woman of Puerto Rican descent, I feel compelled to speak for our community, and to educate the uneducated. It is amazing that a member of Congress who has the responsibility for casting votes on behalf of tens of thousands of Americans could be so uninformed about the Constitution. It makes you wonder how many other times her understanding of complex issues has been wrong.”

So did she apologize? Of course not. Instead she said, via a spokesperson that she should have “territorial” citizens and not foreign but that she defended her position.

Puerto Ricans don’t pay Federal taxes but guess what ? They can’t vote for president either and worse, they can’t determine their own status.

Via / The Orlando Sentinel and a joint press release by Nydia Velasquez and Jose Serrano.