By Robert DePosada

Next week Congress will vote on a bill to invite Puerto Rico to become our 51st State.  The Democratic leadership in Congress is using their usual playbook of deceptive rhetoric and stealth tactics to push their agenda, but the misleadingly-named Puerto Rico Democracy Act (H.R. 2499) is a new low.

Under the banner of a non-binding self-determination bill, Congress will likely put their stamp of approval on a flawed election process in Puerto Rico that will guarantee the addition of Puerto Rico as our 51st state. In addition to costing U.S. taxpayers more than  $30 billion a year, we will be adopting a state where only 20 percent of its residents speak English, the per capita income is half of Mississippi’s (our poorest state) and the gun control laws are more stringent than any state in the U.S.

Here is how it will work: Congress passes a non-binding self-determination bill which calls for a federally sanctioned self-determination process for Puerto Rico. Statehood leaders in Puerto Rico, who control all branches of government, will design – by not offering the continuation of Puerto Rico’s current status as a commonwealth – an election that guarantees a significant statehood victory. Then, after statehood wins a landslide majority, they will elect a congressional delegation to send to Washington, D.C. and demand they be seated.  With its current population of about four million, Puerto Rico could add six or seven liberal members to the House of Representatives and two to the U.S. Senate.

Because Puerto Ricans have repeatedly rejected statehood and voted to remain a U.S. Commonwealth in all three elections in which they have voted on the issue, the New Progressive Party (PNP) are exerting their one-party control of Puerto Rico’s government to implement their own version of the “nuclear option.”  In fact, the PNP’s 2008 platform says that Puerto Rico will follow the same strategy Tennessee used to gain admission to the Union in 1796: to dispatch its newly elected congressmen to Washington to demand their seats in Congress.

But the Puerto Ricans will have one weapon the Tennesseans lacked. As PNP leader and former Governor Carlos Romero Barceló, told local newspapers, “They [congressional leaders] will have to support [statehood] in order to avoid being accused of bigotry against Hispanics.”In other words the Puerto Ricans won’t hesitate to denounce anyone who resists their demand as “racists.” Anyone who thinks such a public relations strategy is far-fetched should recall the battle over seating Roland Burris, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pick to be U.S. Senator from Illinois.

One has to wonder why Puerto Rican statehood leaders would use such strong-arm tactics to force their way into the Union. The main reason is that Puerto Rico’s economy is in shambles and it needs a bailout from the U.S. Treasury that it could not hope to get as a commonwealth.

Next week’s vote should be a wake-up call to all Americans and their Congressional representatives who remain committed to government transparency and our nation’s economic security. Rather than conduct an honest and open debate about the potential costs and benefits of Puerto Rican statehood, Congressional leaders are preparing to use the suspension calendar – which would limit debate and amendments for quick passage – to produce a larger Democratic majority. If Congressional leaders are committed to further stripping away our economic security and cultural identity, they should know that they will need to do it by force and not by stealth.