They are born American just as we are born Americans. The number of Puerto Ricans and citizens of Puerto Rican ascendance living in the mainland has been conservatively estimated at 2.5 million. The population of the United States, at last count, did not reach 300 million. It is a fact, then, that more than one out of every 50 United States citizens alive today is Puerto Rican. More than one out of every 80 of our nation's citizens live in Puerto Rico.
Subjective identity is another matter.
No single subjective identity, whether based on ethnicity, culture, religion or origin is incompatible with the citizenship of the United States of America. The freedom that our nation stands for in the eyes of the entire world, guarantees my right to be different from you and your right to be different from each of your colleagues, provided we all come together on a small but very basic set of principles and ideals. The major and most transcendental of these principles is equality. The present political status of Puerto Rico promotes inequality with our fellow United States citizens. Residents of Puerto Rico are unequal because our political system, based almost exclusively on status preference, has the practical effect of preventing the free and intelligent exercise of our right to vote.