Puerto Rico Is Not "Part Of" the United States. It Is *Owned By* the United States.

That's not an ideological claim. It is a legal and political fact.

Bad Bunny raised eyebrows at the Grammys with some powerful political statements; notably, a strong rebuke of ICE and defense of immigrants. Later, in a comedy bit with host Trevor Noah, he alluded to the fact that you couldn’t really escape from Trump’s fascism by moving to Puerto Rico because it’s “part of America.”

But watch what he did when he said it:

Those air quotes make all the difference. Puerto Rico isn’t really “part of” the U.S. at all. And claiming it is obscures the United States’ ongoing colonial rule over Puerto Rico.

---

---

This is not an ideological claim or a rhetorical rejection of the United States. It’s just a fact. The United States’ authority over Puerto Rico emanates from Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which reads in part (emphasis mine):

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.

Scholars refer to this as the Property Clause of the Constitution, and that’s what Puerto Rico really is: a mere possession.

At the turn of the 20th century, after the U.S. invaded and acquired Puerto Rico, the Supreme Court affirmed the island’s status as property. Here’s the landmark 1901 decision in Downes v. Bidwell—emphasis again mine:

We are therefore of opinion that the Island of Porto Rico is a territory appurtenant and belonging to the United States, but not a part of the United States.

That decision, and others like it in what became known as the Insular Cases, created a doctrine of “unincorporated territories.” These are places that are not—and are not intended to be—part of the United States. Legally, Puerto Rico remains an unincorporated territory to this day. Despite calling Puerto Ricans an “alien race” of “savages,” the Insular Cases have never been overturned, and more than a century of jurisprudence has upheld Puerto Rico’s status as property.

Here’s the Supreme Court again, as recently as 2022, in United States v. Vaello Madero:

The Territory Clause of the Constitution states that Congress may “make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory . . . belonging to the United States.” The text of the Clause affords Congress broad authority to legislate with respect to the U. S. Territories.

---

---

This is much more than semantic nitpicking. The gap between “part of” and “belonging to” is a distinction with an enormous difference. If Puerto Rico were truly part of the United States, its people would have full political rights and representation in the U.S. government and would be wholly protected by the U.S. Constitution. Neither is true, because Puerto Rico remains a colony.

Declaring that Puerto Rico is part of the United States may be a well-intentioned attempt at inclusion—and a way to clap back at political movements that traffic in exclusion and hate. But, like calling Puerto Ricans “Americans,” it implicitly suggests that all is well with Puerto Rico’s political status. It’s not. And we can’t hope to address that problem if we don’t speak clearly and honestly about the island’s political subordination.

There’s a lot of talk about how Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show is a huge moment for Puerto Rican culture. It is! But it’s also becoming a big moment for perpetuating shallow, inaccurate, and ultimately harmful ideas about Puerto Rico’s relationship to the United States. It would be a crying, colonial shame if that became one this joyful moment’s most enduring legacies.

---

---

P.S. Want to learn what Bad Bunny himself thinks about Puerto Rico’s political status? Check out the full recording of my recent event with Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora: Bad Bunny and the Voice of Puerto Rico’s Independence Movement.