Right to Housing

Sanctuary policies are local measures designed to protect all people in a community, regardless of immigration status. These policies ensure that municipal and state governments do not use local resources to enforce federal immigration laws, prioritizing safety, trust, and community well-being instead.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Puerto Rico, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense of civil, human, and constitutional rights, supports Joint Resolution of the Senate 497, which seeks to prohibit the Municipality of Vieques, the Department of Housing, and other public entities from selling or otherwise disposing of real property in Vieques, as well as to identify mechanisms to stop the displacement of the Vieques community — including the creation of a land trust. The ACLU grounds its position in the human right to housing and in the history of dispossession and abandonment that Vieques has suffered, first at the hands of the United States Navy and later through real estate speculation encouraged by laws such as Act 22 and Act 60; for this reason, it supports measures such as a land trust that guarantees that the land remains in Viequense hands, using the community of Monte Carmelo as a flagship project, and affirms that JRS 497 provides real alternatives for Viequense families to preserve their land and access a safe and dignified home. Status: https://sutra.oslpr.org/medidas/147849