Activist Says Puerto Rican Migrants Won’t Be Burden To N.B.

The Puerto Rican economy is considered to be on the brink of near collapse after the island's Government Development Bank failed to repay $370 million.

The U.S. territory has been dealing with economic troubles for roughly for a decade and caused many residents to seek economic opportunities in the mainland U.S.

Mariangeli Vargas of the Puerto Rican and Latin American Art and Cultural Committee, told WBSM's Brian Thomas that many of the territory's problems are caused by mismanagement from political leaders and excessive fines and regulations on businesses particularly the dairy industry.

"What they have done, they had shoved in a lot of them at one time, and the farmers...don't have enough to pay employees with all these fees and they have to shut down," said Vargas.

This has made an already difficult economic situation even more dire forcing many island residents to seek opportunities elsewhere in the U.S., including here in New Bedford.

As the city prepares for a potential influx, many are concerned about the burden that this will place on local resources, particularly in the school system.

However, Vargas says that resources can be made available to assist these students.

"Due to tax payments, we can have grants and funding that we can create some positions of teachers that can be bilingual, because it's necessary," said Vargas "because a lot of the people from, not only Puerto Rico, from many other areas, are immigrating to the United States looking for a better quality of life for their children."

Vargas also says that if the proper resources are utilized this group of children can make positive contributions to the communities they settle in.

"For example, we have the woman who was Puerto Rican, she was raised in New York who was in the medical field and she was the Secretary of Health for many years," said Vargas "and those children are going to be the ones who are running this country one day if we do it properly."

Congress is working on legislation to help restructure the island's debt and slow down the economic decline.