Recession, hurricanes, service cuts: Why Puerto Ricans are leaving the island for the mainland

When Angie Cruz's family home in Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, Cruz packed up her elderly grandmother, toddler son and young niece to stay with an aunt in Chicago.

It was supposed to be temporary.

But weeks turned into months, and months have turned into nearly two years. Her grandmother longs to return to the island, and Cruz misses it too. Still, they are making a home in Chicago, among thousands of other American citizens who are part of the Puerto Rican diaspora.

For more than a century, the 3,500-square-mile island in the Caribbean has been a U.S. territory whose people are American citizens. Citizenship made it easier for Puerto Ricans to leave the island for New York, Chicago and other cities on the mainland.