President Biden is not living up to his promise to treat all Puerto Ricans equally | Opinion

March marked the 104th anniversary of granting U.S. citizenship to residents of Puerto Rico. This citizenship, however, is not truly equal. Unless the Biden-Harris administration is ready to support statehood as the solution to this problem, the administration has an opportunity to fulfill an important campaign promise and make things right for Puerto Rico.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the case of United States v. Vaello-Madero. This means the court will review the First Circuit’s determination that the exclusion of residents of Puerto Rico from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) violates the due-process clause of the Fifth Amendment. The case originated when New York resident José Luis Vaello-Madero moved to Puerto Rico and was stripped of his SSI benefits.

The program, which provides cash assistance to low-income people over 65 or with disabilities, no longer was available to him because he now lived in Puerto Rico. Instead, he was entitled to a separate, Puerto Rico-specific, program with far fewer benefits. Before the First Circuit held Puerto Rico residents were eligible to SSI, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands were excluded from SSI payments, while the residents of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands were eligible.

After losing the fight to treat island residents unequally, at the district-court level in 2019 and First Circuit in 2020, the Trump administration petitioned for Supreme Court review as a last attempt to require Vaello-Madero to return SSI payments that were sent to him in “error” when he moved to Puerto Rico. The real stakes are much greater than the overpayments — the Trump administration wanted to exclude Puerto Rico from SSI.

President Biden campaigned heavily to convince Puerto Ricans living in the 50 states to vote for him. His campaign platform said: Puerto Ricans, “whether [they] live in Reading, Pennsylvania; Kissimmee, Florida; or San Juan, Puerto Rico, deserve a fair return for [their] work, an equal chance to get ahead and a government that treats every American citizen equally and has your back when you get knocked down.”

When the Biden-Harris administration took office, the Supreme Court had not yet announced whether it would review the Vaello-Madero case. Many would argue that the court was waiting to see whether this case would join the list of cases that the administration asked it to withdraw from the arguments calendar, citing changes in presidential policy.

But it was not, and the effort to overturn the decision in Vaello-Madero is still on the calendar. This is precisely the opposite of treating every American citizen equally. And it also contradicts the president’s campaign platform.

The Biden-Harris administration still can drop the case — and it should. There is precedent for the executive branch not to defend federal laws in litigation. Given it is likely that the Supreme Court will uphold the existing law if it gets to it, Congress must act quickly — now — to protect U.S. citizens in the territories by extending SSI through legislation.

As a student studying constitutional law this semester, I have struggled to understand some horrible Supreme Court decisions that have allowed the United States to veer away from its founding principles of liberty, freedom, and equality to justify unfair treatment of Puerto Ricans. Using the Territorial Clause to defend unequal treatment of U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico is not what the Biden-Harris administration want for our great nation. But failing to withdraw Vaello-Madero further perpetuates this treatment.

While it is great that Biden can play “Despacito” on his phone, as he did on the campaign trail, it is now time to play the tunes of equality for all Americans. Biden’s campaign is over. And the clock is ticking.

Sebastian Negron-Reichard is a first-year JD/MBA student at Harvard University. He was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and is an avid supporter of statehood for the island.