Puerto Rican community condemns ‘island of garbage’ remark

[Anchor]

The fallout from the earlier comments about the "island of garbage" is not simple.

There are over 5 million Puerto Ricans living in the United States.

Major newspapers in Puerto Rico have condemned these remarks and publicly declared their support for Harris.

This is reporter Park Il-jung.

[Report]

Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean with a population of 3.4 million.

It was ceded by Spain to the United States in the late 1800s, but it is not a separate state.

Therefore, residents cannot elect federal representatives and do not have the right to vote in presidential elections.

They have already been marginalized in federal budget allocations, and the recent "island of garbage" comments have added fuel to their discontent.

[Yvette Figueroa/Puerto Rican immigrant: "I have two brothers in the military. They serve the country. I don't know what he's talking about and that's not a joke."]

Puerto Ricans living on the mainland have voting rights.

There are 5.8 million Puerto Ricans in the U.S., which is more than the population of Puerto Rico itself.

This makes them the second largest group among Latino immigrants in the United States.

In Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, over 470,000 of the 600,000 Latino residents are of Puerto Rican descent.

Considering that President Biden won here by just over 80,000 votes against Trump four years ago, this is not a small number.

In states like Arizona and Georgia, the population of Puerto Ricans is also significantly higher than the vote margin from four years ago.

[Bolivar Pahin/Puerto Rican immigrant: "But then he turns around and insults them. I don't understand why a person would do that. Obviously it’s a person who has no feelings for Latin people."]

As anger grows, major newspapers in Puerto Rico have condemned the "floating island of garbage" remarks that came up during Trump's rally and publicly urged voters to support Harris.

However, there are opinions that, given the strong cohesion among Trump supporters, this may not be a significant factor in the upcoming election.

This is Park Il-jung reporting from New York for KBS News.