‘Discrimination’: Puerto Ricans decry Supreme Court ruling allowing exclusion

Puerto Ricans on the island and in Congress have criticized the US Supreme Court Fifth Judgment indicates a denial of federal benefits to old age and U.S. citizens with disabilities live in Puerto Rico, though they can access the benefits if they move to the mainland.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote the decision, said that “not every federal tax applies to Puerto Rican residents, so not every federal benefit program extends to Puerto Rican residents.”

In an 8-1 vote, the court sided with Ministry of Justice, arguments in favor of the overturn a lower court’s decision argued that it was “invalid” to deny Supplemental Security Income, also known as SSI, benefits to Puerto Ricans living in the United States.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, originally from Puerto Rico, was the sole dissident.

“In my view, there is no reasonable basis for Congress to treat impoverished citizens living anywhere in the United States so differently from others,” Sotomayor wrote in dissent. his point. “To be otherwise, as the Court does, is unreasonable and contrary to the very nature of the SSI program and the equal protection of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Congress has made SSI benefits available to U.S. citizens living in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Northern Mariana Islands, but not to those living in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. USA.

Puerto Ricans are “generally exempt from most federal taxes, including income taxes, excise taxes, and estate and gift taxes,” according to the Justice Department. However, Puerto Ricans pay federal payroll taxes and help fund public programs like Medicare and Social Security more than $4 billion annually in federal taxes to the United States.

Differences in tax limits Puerto Ricans on the island in other ways, including the lack of voting representation in Congress and the inability to vote in US presidential elections. And there are other restrictions when it comes to accessing federal safety net programs.

Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi blasted the Supreme Court’s decision in a statement in Spanish, saying it further emphasized that “Puerto Rico’s territorial status is discriminatory against American citizens on the island” because of it ” allow Congress to do whatever it wants with us.”

“It is clear that our people, especially the most vulnerable, suffer the consequences of this unequal treatment,” Pierluisi said.

Among those affected by the decision are families such as Aurelis Aponte and her daughter Isabela, 5, who was born with seven severe heart conditions.

Aponte told NBC News in Spanish on Thursday after learning of the ruling: “I felt like a bucket of cold water was poured over me. “I just feel offended and sad. It’s just heavy news.”

After Hurricane Maria wreaks havoc on Puerto Rico in 2017, the family moved to Florida, where they were able to receive aid, including food stamps and SSI benefits that helped pay for the girl’s concurrent and costly medical treatment.

But when the family moved back to Puerto Rico, so that Aponte could care for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, Isabela lost her SSI benefits. Those payments put her parents “in a better position to help Isabela endure a health condition that doesn’t just disappear,” Aponte previously told NBC News.

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, DN.Y., originally from Puerto Rico, said in a statement that the ruling “is a dismaying setback for the people of Puerto Rico, who deserve the benefits.” This ruling must fire before Congress to finally pass legislation that guarantees the rights of Puerto Ricans and other residents of the territories. equal territory in the receipt of the full benefits of the Union.”

Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez, Puerto Rico’s disapproving member of Congress, is urging lawmakers to extend SSI benefits to Puerto Rico through legislative action “to correct this outrageous discrimination that causes More than 300,000 of our most vulnerable citizens fall into extreme poverty,” the Republican lawmaker said in a statement.

Aponte agrees.

“It’s not a whim. They just have to look at the numbers to see the need,” Aponte said, adding that nearly 44 percent of Puerto Ricans live in poverty. ”

She said that although she has “made up” to the fact that she needs to take a break from some work to help her daughter, “I think about the disabled mother who can’t work and the kids. have to take care of. Give her SSI benefits and let’s make SSI benefits available to every Puerto Rican who doesn’t have transportation to the mainland United States.”

However President Joe Biden promised to “ensure Puerto Rican residents have access to [SSI] interests” during his presidential campaign, he defended the Justice Department’s efforts to strip them of those benefits.

In one announced last JuneBiden said the Justice Department “has a longstanding practice of protecting the constitutionality of federal statutes, regardless of policy preferences.”

However, Biden said Puerto Ricans “will be able to receive SSI benefits” and called on Congress to amend the Social Security Act.

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at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here