Editing Demographics of Puerto Rico (section)

====Background====
In the late 1700s, Puerto Rico had laws like the ''Regla del Sacar'' or ''Gracias al Sacar'' where a person of mixed ancestry could be considered legally white so long as they could prove that at least one person per generation in the last four generations had also been legally white. Therefore, people of mixed ancestry with known white lineage were classified as white, the opposite of the "[[one-drop rule]]" in the United States.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qLSU-SiojsYC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22 ''Not of Pure Blood.''] Jay Kinsbruner. [[Duke University Press]]. 1996. Page 22. Retrieved January 27, 2012.</ref>

A strong wave of European immigration and the large importation of slaves from Africa increased the population of Puerto Rico sixfold during the 19th century. No major immigration wave occurred during the 20th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3659/is_200108/ai_n8981492|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608151127/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3659/is_200108/ai_n8981492|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 8, 2007|title=Mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals substantial Native American ancestry in Puerto Rico Human Biology – Find Articles|date=June 8, 2007|access-date=October 14, 2017}}</ref>

The federal [[Naturalization Act of 1790|Naturalization Act]], signed into law on March 26, 1790, by President Washington stated that immigrants to the United States had to be White according to the definition under the British Common Law, which the United States inherited. The legal definition of Whiteness differed greatly from White Society's informal definition,{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} thus Jews, Romani Peoples, Middle Eastern Peoples and those of the Indian Subcontinent were before 1917 classified as White for Immigration purposes but not considered White by the society at large.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} The Naturalization Act of 1870, passed during Reconstruction, allowed for peoples of African descent to become U.S. Citizens but it excluded other nonwhites. The U.S. Supreme Court in the case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) declared that all nonwhites who were born in the United States were eligible for citizenship via the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment. U.S. Immigration Policy was first restricted toward Chinese with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Gentleman's Agreement of 1907 in which Japan voluntarily barred emigration to the United States and the Immigration Act of 1917 or the Asiatic Barred Zone which barred immigrants from all of the Middle East, the Steppes and the Orient, excluding the Philippines which was then a US Colony. European Jews and Romani, although of Asiatic Ancestry, were not affected by the Asiatic Barred Zone, as they held European Citizenship. The [[Immigration Act of 1924|Johnson-Reed act of 1924]] applied only to the Eastern Hemisphere. The Act imposed immigration quotas on Europe, which allowed for easy immigration from Northern and Western Europe, but almost excluded the Southern and Eastern European Nations. Africa and Asia were excluded altogether. The Western Hemisphere remained unrestricted to immigrate to the United States. Thus under the Immigration Act of 1924 all Hispanics and Caribbeans could immigrate to the United States, but a White family from Poland or Russia could not immigrate. Puerto Rican Citizenship was created under the Foraker Act, Pub.L. 56–191, 31 Stat. 77 but it wasn't until 1917 that Puerto Ricans were granted full American Citizenship under the Jones–Shafroth Act (Pub.L. 64–368, 39 Stat. 951). Puerto Ricans, excluding those of obvious African ancestry, were like most Hispanics formally classified as White under U.S. Law.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}