Thanks for the feedback. I fixed this issue by wrapping everything inside an add_action hook:
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', function(){
//1. get User Status
$user_id = get_current_user_id();
$user_output = get_user_meta($user_id, 'needs_extra_item', true);
//echo $user_output[0];
//2. Register the script
wp_register_script( 'some_handle', './js/jqueryLaPuerta.js' );
//3. Localize the script with new data
$some_array = array(
'some_string' => __( $user_output, 'plugin-domain' ),
'a_value' => '10'
);
wp_localize_script( 'some_handle', 'object_name', $some_array );
//4. Enqueued script with localized data.
wp_enqueue_script( 'some_handle' );
});