The Dominican Republic’s Boston Consulate was the scene of a recent protest by several local organizations including The Haitian Coalition in Somerville. At issue is the Dominican government’s recent push to enforce a five-year old law that puts Dominican born citizens of Haitian ancestry at risk of deportation. In 2010 the Dominican government passed legislation to tighten citizenship policies. The new policy stated that children of immigrants born in the DR would take the nationality of their father, and not be considered Dominican citizens.

This policy differs from the United States where citizenship is granted to any baby born in the country. According to former Dominican consul, Dominico Cabral, only 24 countries in the world have a policy like the US.

During the regime of the Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier in the 1950s, thousands of Haitians were sent across the border to work in the DR’s sugarcane fields. Many remained in the country and made the Dominican Republic their home, living, working and having children. Now those Dominican born children of Haitian workers and their families face deportation if they cannot produce the necessary documents.

The Dominican government has been accused of racism and violating the human rights of citizens with Haitian ancestry by the media and activists. “There are incidents of the army going to towns in the DR where they are rounding people up and dropping them off at the border regardless of whether they were born in the DR or if they have a birth certificate. There’s a systematic expulsion of people with darker skin race” says Rodline Louijeune from the Institute of Justice and Democracy in Haiti in Dorchester.

Dominico Cabral says the new immigration policies are a national security issue. He says that in the 2010 earthquake, a large number of prisoners escaped Haitian jails and crossed the border into the DR. “We don’t know where they are. We don’t know who they are. We need to register everyone inside the Dominican to help our internal security,” he said.

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