Earlier this month, Andrew G. Biggs, Arthur J. Gonzalez, and Betty A. Rosa, three members of Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), returned to their posts after a federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump likely violated the law when he abruptly dismissed six FOMB members in early August. In a thirty-four-page decision, Judge María Antongiorgi-Jordán concluded that the president’s actions breached the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act of 2016 (PROMESA) requirement that members can only be removed “for cause.” Only on September 26, nearly two months after their firing and days before the first hearing, did the White House attempt to justify the firings in writing. The ruling, which the FOMB has since agreed to comply with, underscores the deep constitutional contradictions at the heart of Puerto Rico’s current governance: a board created in the name of addressing the Puerto Rican economic crisis now finds its legitimacy challenged on legal grounds.

The reinstatement of the FOMB members, together with the reactions by politicians and commentators, contributed to a narrative about Puerto Rico that reflects a broader discourse embraced by US policymakers: that Puerto Ricans are fiscally irresponsible and must be saved by technocratic supervision. This story has shaped Washington’s approach to the archipelago for decades, legitimizing colonial governance while obscuring the devastating social costs of austerity. As a scholar focused on the intersections of law, colonialism, and crisis in Puerto Rico, I feel compelled to correct this narrative, which repeats a long colonial tradition of speaking for Puerto Ricans while silencing them.

For instance, in a guest essay titled “Trump Is Pulling the Plug on Puerto Rico’s Economy,” published by the New York Times on September 24, Andrew Biggs and David Skeel framed President Trump’s firing of FOMB members as a reckless move that could imperil Puerto Rico’s fragile recovery. Yet while Biggs and Skeel sound the alarm about Trump’s overreach, their argument erases a crucial fact: the plug on Puerto Rico’s economy was pulled nearly a decade ago when the US Congress enacted PROMESA and handed fiscal governance to an unelected board empowered to override local legislation, dictate budgets, and sue the Puerto Rican government when it diverges from the board’s fiscal plans.