Puerto Rican citizenship
On April 12, 1900, the United States Congress enacted the Foraker Act of 1900, which replaced the governing military regime in Puerto Rico with a civil form of government. Section VII of this act created a Puerto Rican citizenship for the residents "born in Puerto Rico and, therefore, subject to its jurisdiction." The Puerto Rican citizenship replaced the Spanish citizenship that Puerto Ricans held at the time in 1898. Such Puerto Rican citizenship was granted by Spain in 1897. This citizenship was reaffirmed by the United States Supreme Court in 1904 by its ruling in which denied that Puerto Ricans were United States citizens and labeled them as noncitizen nationals. In a 1914 letter of refusal to the offer of U.S. citizenship and addressed to both the President of the United States and the U.S. Congress, the Puerto Rico House of Delegates stated ""We, Porto Ricans, Spanish-Americans, of Latin soul ... are satisfied with our own beloved Porto Rican citizenship, and proud to have been born and brethren in our own motherland."" The official 1916 Report by the American colonial governor of Puerto Rico to the U.S. Secretary of War (the former name for the Department of Defense), addresses both citizenships, the Puerto Rican citizenship and United States citizenship, in the context of the issuance of passports, further evidencing that the Puerto Rican citizenship did not disappear when the Americans took over the island in 1898.
Anarchism in Puerto Rico
The legal imposition of the United States citizenship and later the military draft on Puerto Ricans marked 1917. Iglesias had used the FLT and PS to push for the first, while anarchists didn't take a posture on the issue. Consequently, they didn't publicly react to the Jones Act. Resident commissioner Luis Muñoz Rivera and other politicians lobbied in favor of extending selective service to Puerto Rico and Enoch Crowder granted it. Institutionally, the FLT supported it and as president of the PS, Iglesias Pantín did as well. Anarchists, nationalists and independentists opposed the draft and campaigned against it. José M. Alicea was arrested during a month for refusing to register. After local legislation limiting speech and federal sedition laws were passed during World War I, Dieppa publicly attacked the authorities and was arrested, tough the case would later be decided in his favor. Pedro Calleja was detained while returning to Puerto Rico due to possessing Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), membership. As strikes continued to wage during the war, colonial governor Arthur Yager declared martial law and prohibited public demonstrations and leftist propaganda. As a result of disobeying and participating in a strikers meeting, Capetillo was arrested. Her treatment was protested by fellow anarchist Ramón Barrios and sympathizer Epifanio Fiz Jiménez.