The push for Puerto Rico’s freedom from the United States is making waves.
The issue of statehood versus independence was thrust into the spotlight last week after DailyMail.com’s exclusive reporting that several Congressional offices are weighing the matter.
And there’s growing pressure on President Donald Trump to free the island via executive order that claims it would save Americans $617 billion over a few decades.
However, Puerto Rico’s total independence is not a widely popular initiative within the island territory community or in the U.S. In recent elections, Puerto Rican voters have overwhelmingly shown preference for statehood over secession and 59 percent of Americans say they support it becoming the 51st state.
But the total independence movement is gaining some momentum and advocates see Trump as their ticket to freedom.
The Puerto Rican Alliance (PRÁ) and its partners are looking to drum up a renewed interest for the secession movement in the U.S.
Over the last month, the alliance has sent letters to White House officials and congressional offices, a leading voice in the push for independence told DailyMail.com.
‘The statehooders – they’re totally trying to discredit [us],’ author and Puerto Rican independence activist Javier Hernandez told DailyMail.com.
‘With all this information coming out now,’ he added, ‘they’re in panic mode right now.’
The issue of Puerto Rican statehood versus independence was thrust into the spotlight last week after DailyMail.com exclusively obtained and released a drafted document proposing an executive order transitioning the Caribbean island to sovereignty
Javier Hernandez was one of the people who helped draft the proposed executive order and who sent a memo on Puerto Rican independence to 30 White House and Cabinet offices as well as several Republican and Democrat lawmakers
Starting in February this year, a small group of pro-secessionist Puerto Ricans sent a five-page memo to 30 Trump officials – including the president’s own office – with three different proposals for a pathway towards granting Puerto Rico sovereignty.
One idea presented an executive order, the second a task force on transitioning to sovereignty and the third declaring a state of emergency in Puerto Rico so Trump could use his executive power to ‘dispose’ of the territory.
The biggest issue recognized by statehood advocates is the proposed executive order first reported by DailyMail.com.
Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council George Laws Garcia told DailyMail.com: ‘This handful of independence supporters have no real momentum in Washington, D.C., with zero federal lawmakers publicly supporting their proposals and no viable legislation, they have resorted to cheap public relations stunts like a fake, unconstitutional ‘executive order’.’
The U.S. president cannot through executive action give sovereignty to a held territory. Instead, it requires an act of Congress to vote on it.
But Hernandez argues that President Donald Trump has taken a more ‘unilateral’ approach to his leadership style and claims that if he signed an order then the Republican-led Congress would fall in line and vote for it.
‘We see that there’s a chance and opportunity with Trump since he’s doing all these executive orders, he’s doing a more unilateral presidency, kind of taking charge like that,’ continued the author of PREXIT: Forging Puerto Rico’s Path to Sovereignty.
‘And as a president he has some powers over international politics, over international relations. So there are some legal precedents to support this, that he can do something.’
‘I mean, to be honest, if the president says, ‘this is what we’re doing, I’m going to support this,’ the Republicans in Congress most likely are going to back it up. So that’s how the Congress would come in,’ he noted.
Herenandez added of the influence campaign: ‘If he does it first and supports this, and it becomes a GOP issue… we could push it through Congress. He signs it, then it becomes law, then we could finally get our freedom and move on with our life. So that’s the goal for this.’
No one in the White House has indicated that they are taking the proposal seriously.
It’s also relevant to note that Trump has taken an expansionism approach to U.S. international policy when proposing things like purchasing Greenland from Denmark and acquiring the Panama Canal.
He has even proposed that Canada become a U.S. state.
Admittedly, PRÁ and its partners did not expect to hear back from the White House and after some time began sending the same proposal to offices on Capitol Hill. They also included a draft of what they proposed an executive order from Trump might look like.
‘When we sent it to the White House, we weren’t expecting them to quickly contact us; we just wanted them to have it and review it, just as congressional offices were also receiving it,’ Hernandez said.
He revealed to DailyMail.com that the paper letters were sent through certified mail, so he could confirm that all of the top Cabinet and White House offices at least obtained the physical copy of the memo.
Hernandez also provided a list of the offices who were sent and received the document.
The list includes top Trump aides and allies like Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Communications Director Steven Cheung and ‘first buddy’ Elon Musk.
But it also went to border czar Tom Homan as well as Cabinet Secretaries like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth.
Statehood activists are also continuing their efforts in the U.S. Puerto Rican Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon met with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in San Juan on March 6, 2025
Whether these top Trump officials laid eyes on the document, reviewed it or have taken it into account, however, remains unknown. Multiple offices did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment on the matter.
Hernandez said that the PRÁ held a meeting earlier this year with staffers with the Senate Energy Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), because the congressional group has jurisdiction over all Puerto Rico-related matters.
He also said that the group was able to secure a future meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office.
Thune’s office did not respond to a request for comment and Lee’s office declined to weigh-in on their meeting.
Garcia noted how the Puerto Rican statehood ballot measure won the last four island-wide plebiscites as well as elected pro-statehood Republican Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon.
‘Now, we are actively working with the administration and the current Congress to introduce and advance legislation for a binding offer of statehood for Puerto Rico,’ he added.
Gonzalez-Colon and 200 statehood supporters met in-person with 80 offices on Capitol Hill this month. Some of these meetings were directly with members of the House and Senate.
The governor also met in San Juan with Homeland Security Secretary Krisit Noem during her first visit to the island in her Cabinet capacity.
Asked why he thinks the movement might be gaining some traction now, Hernandez said ‘it’s almost like the stars are aligning’ for the independence movement.
‘I think we can actually do something here with independence, finally,’ he said. ‘So we got together, we organized and we got the best and brightest people to come together in Puerto Rico and diaspora to really make a really good case for independence, but through executive action.’
The core members that drafted the memo and executive order along with Hernandez are Edil Sepúlveda, who founded PRÁ, Puerto Rican attorney Rolando Emmanuelli Jiménez, professor Carlos Rivera Lugo and American-born land use and housing policy analyst Christina Mojica.
PRÁ is a national advocacy organization looking to connect Puerto Rico and its people who have dispersed around the world with decision-makers and communities advocating for decolonization or independence of the island territory.
