BY KAVEH AZIMI — Shortly after the 2010 earthquake struck Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, I found myself in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Listening to the radio, I was moved when the program’s host interrupted the music to call on his listeners to donate food, supplies, and money for Haiti.
Today, this generosity of spirit is missing in the Dominican Republic.
Instead, the country’s government has failed to take meaningful steps to resolve the crisis of statelessness that started two years ago when the Dominican High Court retroactively stripped citizenship from hundreds of thousands of Dominicans, mostly of Haitian descent. Since then, at least 60,000 people have “self-deported” to Haiti, ostensibly for fear of violence or summary expulsions, which can mean being separated from family members and not getting a chance to collect their belongings. Tens of thousands of Dominican citizens of Haitian descent have been told that their official identification documents are no longer valid. They need to re-register, first as foreign nationals, before eventually – hopefully – their status as Dominican nationals is returned.
And so, this month, I joined with more than 560 other Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and three former Peace Corps country directors who served in the Dominican Republic to call on US Secretary of State John Kerry to act. Our petition calls on the US State Department to enforce a law known as the Leahy amendment, which would suspend military aid to the Dominican Republic in light of the Dominican security forces’ gross violations of human rights, which include detaining and deporting Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent.
My story: As a Peace Corps volunteer, I lived in a small, dusty village tucked away amongst vast sugarcane fields. My community was made up mostly of the descendants of Haitian laborers who had come to the Dominican Republic to cut sugarcane. During these years, I lived in a storage shed-turned-bedroom behind my host family’s small cement block house. My closest neighbor, at least in proximity, was a 200-pound pig that would wake me each morning at 5 a.m. as it squealed for breakfast.
Like most Peace Corps volunteers, I had joined to change the world. I was enthusiastic but inexperienced. I can still see the disappointed looks that greeted me when, shortly after arriving to my new home, I announced that I had come to help organize “community banks,” or community savings and loan groups. I was asked: what about new houses, a new school, or medical supplies, instead?
The residents of my community, known as Batey 8, were the sons, daughters, and grandchildren of Haitian migrants, but had been born in the Dominican Republic. In fact, according to a census I conducted, over 90 percent of community residents were born in the Dominican Republic, though nearly everyone had Haitian roots. Even as children or grandchildren of immigrants, they were raised to be proud Dominicans. They ate typical Dominican food, spoke Dominican Spanish, danced Dominican bachata, and proudly celebrated their country’s three founding fathers: Duarte, Sanchez, and Mella.
They were Dominican in every sense of the word, with only one notable difference: their darker, “Haitian” features.
Precarious legal status: Unfortunately, having “Haitian” features in the Dominican Republic can be problematic when interacting with the state. One example is birth certificates – necessary to vote, open a bank account, attend school past 8th grade, or travel. Roughly 20-30 percent of the population was never issued a birth certificate, and, therefore, has no official identification. The percentage is especially bad in rural areas where healthcare systems and government infrastructure are weak.[pullquote]They might have just been sent home, or they might have been detained or deported. That decision depended on luck rather than formal procedures.[/pullquote]
For children whose parents are of Haitian descent, weak infrastructure coupled with institutionalized racism keeps documentation rates even lower. In my community, I found that 40 percent of the population lacked a birth certificate. When these residents were questioned by the authorities about their “Haitian” features, they struggled to prove their Dominican nationality. As it turned out, this was a common conversation.
There is a police checkpoint along the highway from Batey 8 to the nearest major city, Barahona. On the highway to Santo Domingo, there are at least half a dozen more. At least once a month, I traveled on a bus to the capital. At each checkpoint, a heavily armed police officer or solider—sometimes in uniform, sometimes not—would board the bus in search of undocumented immigrants: that is, travelers who looked Haitian. The officer would scan the bus, demand proper paperwork, and then remove those who couldn’t provide it. They might have just been sent home, or they might have been detained or deported. That decision depended on luck rather than formal procedures. Now, with tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent without proper identification, even the simple act of traveling could get someone deported.
Undermining cooperation: I finished my Peace Corps service in 2008. For each of the past seven years, I have visited my Peace Corps community at least once a year. During this time, I have seen acts of prejudice, but I have also seen innumerable acts of goodwill between Dominicans and Haitians. Despite tensions, the Dominican Republic was one of Haiti’s biggest supporters after the 2010 earthquake. And that support extended beyond the government to the Dominican people whose compassion and kindness seemed boundless.
The real tragedy of the Dominican High Court’s decision to de-nationalize tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent—and the Dominican government’s wholly insufficient response—is that it takes an undercurrent of racial and cultural prejudice and formalizes it as state policy. It undermines all the positive examples of coexistence and support among Dominicans, Dominicans of Haitian descent, and Haitians. And it takes a beautiful country, with warm, kind people, and tarnishes its reputation.
I joined the Peace Corps to change the world; I learned that’s not so easy. Change can come slowly, in increments, and sometimes, not at all. But the spirit of the Peace Corps is that we all have a responsibility to do what we can, when we can to make a difference – small or large. That’s why I called on the State Department to act, along with more than 560 of my colleagues. And that is why we are asking Secretary Kerry to do what he can to make a difference in this crisis.
The views expressed above are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of the Antillean Media Group.
Mr. Azimi. As a expert. Yo should know that the root ofi the problem is not deporting those migrants and their familia beca use now as the New law algo states a way to be legalizzed.
You should know as serving few years in the batey that al mostrar 80 percent oficina haitians dont event exist to their goverment. They cross the.border alrededor unkown to everyone. Peace Corp should invents some time and money trying to get haitians in Haití their own right to be reconognize. A simple birth certificate so They can really exist evento in their own contra.
Tkd
Lets start making solutions ando no be a partir of a problem.
Best regada
Vgs
Mr. Azimi, why should the Dominican tax payer be responsible for the problems of Haiti? The government of Haiti does not document its people, Haitians were already stateless before they came to the DR. making the DR assume responsivity for Haiti will doom both countries. those people of Haitian decent you speak about were not deported they are still here, you are using them as a cover to justify all the other illegal Haitians that reside on our territory. if we allow any one to come here with out restriction there will be no one left in Haiti and in few years our country would look just like Haiti. our government should have more controls over the NGOs in our country like Russia and China are doing, NGOs are part of the 5 column in this country. instead of trying to make the DR better for Haitians you should try to make Haiti better for Haitians so they don’t come here illegally. There is no benefit for us in taking in all the poor people from Haiti maybe you have one you would like to point out….thank you.
Maybe it would be better, if those going to DR to help Haitians, would be better served to go to Haiti to help Haitians. Instead of recognizing that Poor Dominicans need help, many come to DR only having real empathy for Haitians and neglect the needs of poor Dominicans who fight over the same resources. They take advantage of the little stability and progress we have, and forget that at least 60% of Dominicans lives as poorly as Haitians
So while I understand that your generosity is geared towards poor Haitians that need the help, can you please make your next plane reservations to Haiti to help them out in their own country. Thank you for your work, as it is noble, but am really tired of outside organization threatening us, maligning, and painting us all as nazi racists xenophobes, even though we are black and poor too. They use our generosity and resources, while making it clear that poor Dominican lives don’t matter as much as Haitians, in our own country.
Again, thanks for the important work, just asking respectfully, that next time, …..you guys go to the country of origin that you plan to help.
P.S. Dominicans were the first ones in after earthquake, but the adage that “no good deed goes unpunished” takes on a new meaning with Dominicans opening their hearts and country to help Haiti out. Especially to anyone who has studied the complicated history of the 2 countries and how in spite of the history Dominicans put those tensions aside to help out our neighbors, after a devasting tragedy.
i continue to hope that one day, Haiti will finally flourish.
Is so sad when people from another country came to our country and started talking insanity and pretend to be hero and make history looks so saddness and everybody has to belive them, if you are so concern about Haitian, them go to haiti and help them out there. we as Dominican we are kind of american in some way, we like to imitate the american, the American eat macdonal, we want to eat Macdonal, American buy a new lamborgini, we want to have the same Lamboghini, so I bet you if you Open the border with Mexico, I am sure we will open it to with Haiti.
Do not tell other people what to do, when you are doing the same or worse in your own territory, we have Law and we are independent country and even you as american do not follow our rule in my country you also have to go, is the same idea in your country when we d o not respet the law we are in trouble there, so please step aside and respect our country and law.
It is so sad that this type of articles are still being written. With so many fact “mistakes”, or plain out lies. Facts: The DR is not deporting Dominicans of Haitian Descent, even those Haitians born in Haiti have been given a chance to stay if they prove they are here working or if they have family, Haiti has been denying their own citizen birth certificates so they become “stateless” and the DR keeps them, and final fact: You do not know a single thing of what you are talking about. Best regards
While Haitians born in DR are being not being deported. The perpetuated lie that DR is leaving Haitian stateless is shown in their own constitution.
Haitian constitution:
ARTICLE 11:
Any person born of a Haitian father or Haitian mother who are themselves native-born Haitians and have never renounced their nationality possesses Haitian nationality at the time of birth.
I urge people going to DR to help Haitians, to help Haitians get their birth certificates in Haiti. It’s astounding that DR is attacked for not giving Haitian born Haitians papers, when Haiti doesn’t give them their birth certificates. How exactly is that the DR’s fault? How can any international organization ask another country to provide Haitians birth certificates, when they weren’t born in DR?
How can the international community , knowing how poor DR is, obligate DR to take on more misery and poverty than already exist in DR? This doesn’t seem like “acts of love” towards Dominicans, more like ….”love to hate DR.”
I do blame DR for being too lax on the border and now being accused of a false narrative created by Haitians and their massive propaganda machine.
Since this article is Haitiancentric, instead of including a historical link that details some of these differences through the Spanish speaking DR side. I include a Haitiancentric link on the history of Haiti and DR…as I am sure it would be seen as more objective and palatable to the author of this article. Where the massacres Haitians committed towards Dominicans aren’t fully addressed.
http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03272011-220809/unrestricted/DePena.pdf
All of this is happening because you are having a racist dark man ,Roberto Rosado, wanting to stripped those Dominicans with hatians background from their nationality. Also you have Ray Guevara that he thinks that he is more Dominican because he, as a judge signed the go ahead to this evil plan.
the word racist has been flown around so much for every issue, that it desensitizing many people who would otherwise be sympathetic. Keep it up. Haiti will never get DR, which is what they really want.
Blackmail all you want and continue your worldwide campaign to destroy DR. At the end Haiti will never rule over DR. The REAL Haitian agenda.
Angelo, it’d be useful if you, Azimi and every first-worlder trying to play superhero would get their facts straight.
This issue came to a head because those “racist” Dominicans as you call them opened their borders after the earthquake and let in over a million Haitians, no questions asked, to come in and receive free medical and humanitarian aid. This is equivalent to 10% of our population (imagine if the US allowed 30 million illegal aliens next week).
Dominican Republic, like most of the rest of the world INCLUDING Haiti, has a citizenship law based on the jus sanguinis principle. You cannot pass on a citizenship you never had in the first place. At any rate, a program was established and now and those citizenships WERE UPHELD. Everyone keeps talking about the first part of the law but not the second. Why? Ask Mr. Azami, maybe the lure of being a self-righteous warrior for justice is too strong, even if you have to invent the cause.
By the way, the US, Mr. Azami’s country has a 10-12% minority population (African Americans) that make-up more than 50% of the inmate population. THAT’S racism. You want to talk about racism? Start there.
This is the thing you and people like you don’t understand. This Haitians are not being stripped of anything, those Haitians were born to illegal parents; therefore those Haitians of Dominican descent as you call them are not Dominican citizens, those people born to illegal parents, are from whatever nationality they’re parents are from, in this case, they are Haitians. Why do you people so conveniently want to change DR’s constitution and at the same time, ignore Haiti’s constitution, chapter 11? Where it states any child born to a Haitian, doesn’t matter where that child is born, that child is a HAITIAN. Dozens of pregnant Haitian women cross the border illegally everyday to have children in Dominican hospitals, and then demand for those children to be provided Dominican citizenship. It does not work like that. It is unfair, aside that Haitians have the highest birth rate. Haitian women have 4 to 5 kids each. It is not right, and it is very easy to say what you are saying or typing rather, from the comfort of your home without knowing the whole history. So please spare us!
This guy is truly misinforming. DR cannot absorb Haiti’s population. That’s what you’re asking for. No country would do that. Not even the US which deport Haitians left and right. Why don’t you ask your country to do that? You’re just a big hypocrite trying to destroy a poor country.
So many questions to ask you Mr. Expert in the Dominican-Haiti problems, but to ask just a few:
How come you and the Peace Corp don’t go to Haiti, to help them rebuilt their country? I believe they need it more than the Dominicans.
If the Dominicans are so racist, how come they have being carried / helping the Haitians for generations? I KNOW THAT, I have see it for the most part of my life.
Have you seeing the destructions they are causing to you rivers? To your land? To our natural resources? Does it matter to you that they come to our country to destroy it and to do the same they have done to their country?
Where is the humanitarian help that was promised to Haiti after 2010????
And finally, you and the Peace Corp come to our country with your agenda and once you leave you start talking bad about our people, about our constitution, like if we are robbing Haitians something that is rightfully theirs. I wish our government will stand up once and for all and will banned you and organizations like the Peace Corp to put foot in our land, you can’t and should not say that you love Dominican Republic, shame on you.
Many N.P.G . keep calling the descendants of illegals Haitians born in the DR ,Dominicans, and they are not.. The Constitution of DR does not give citizenship to children of Illegals just like in other 160 countries including Haiti , Also Haiti and DR have signed Labor treaties and in article 1 section G: Explain clearly that in case of birth between contract workers and their wives , Their children born in DR are NOT DOMINICAN CITIZENS they are Haitians. The problem is that for years they have been bying illegal documents in the civil registry to criminals that work for the government, You can see that in a investigation by reporter Nuria Piera tittle ” Suplantacion de identidad” you can easily find it on Youtube, where Haitians buy documents for up to 18 children some of them born the same years on different months , then years goes by and now they think that because they bought it back in the 80’s that those fake documents make them Dominicans and that the time and the fact that their children learn Spanish , that now that make their identity fraud LEGAL..No they are Haitians , The problem is also that 80% of Haitians do not have documents , their country refuse to document their people , and the minute they cross over , they cry for Dominican Documents with the help of hundred of N.P.G. like yours , that with UN, O.A.E, USA, Canada and France, plan to transfer the poverty of Haiti to the DR..because, Haiti is dead, a human catastrophe , A waste of billions in donation every year , failed state # 9 on the planet and Washington fears a Tsunami of poverty coming to Florida if the DR apply it laws, That is why all these attack on us, unlike the CARICOM nations like the Bahamas do, They can deport children of illegal Haitians born in their island and nobody say anything , but if it the DR, now is Racism..What a blackmail..Please if you guys want to help poor Haitians and they need help..Do it in Haiti, Transferring Haiti problem to DR only going to cause problem.
As human, I agree with most of your statements. And, as a Dominican, I often disagree with many of my fellow countrymen and women and the prevailing media and popular positions on the issues you write about.
There is a racism problem in the Dominican Republic, one maybe as big as the racism problem in the USA. There is no point in denying it when we see it everyday, everywhere. It’s embedded in our culture in ways too many to describe here. Ways that perpetuate the notion that white is better than black, just as they perpetuate other unsustainable positions like the notion that male is better than female, urban is better than rural, catholic is better than anything else, foreign is better than local, and let’s not make my comment controversial by adding the common mindset that hetero is better than homo. Everyday we hear and use sentences like “boy, leave that thing alone, you gonna break it, that’s for white people (eso e pa blanco)”, or the same thing ending with “for men (eso e pa hombre)”, or “that thing really works, what you expect, made by gringos (hecho por gringos)”, to quote just a few of the ironic statements used by Dominicans dark as the night themselves and as manly as just the next guy. Yet, we as humans tend to idealize things and aspire for those things we are made to believe better (whiteness, manliness, foreigness. And, as irrational sports fanaticism shows us, humans both as individuals and as groups tend to create identity, bonds and the need to feel that our “group” is better than the rest, regardless if it’s our local baseball team, our Call of Duty or Halo clan, our labor union, our neighborhood, our hometown or our country.
The previous paragraph is not an apology or a justification of terrible positions and perceptions part of our mindset. We as a society have a long way to go and a deep, undeniable and unpostponable responsibility to open our minds and hearts even more, embrace diversity even more, strengthen our identity and bonds so that we don’t feel it threatened by anything foreign, to come closer as humans so that we don’t perceive differences as a source of evil and our group characteristics and rights as exclusive, instantaneous goodness and a source of holiness.
I too have served communities both at the border and in Haïti, and I too have felt indignation when the bus coming from Haïti or the border is stopped and boarded by military men who ask the “morenos” (dark skin ones) to descend the bus and produce papers. My reaction is always to stand up and come down and stand in line with them and demand to be checked like the rest, as being “moreno” is not reason enough to differentiate us.
As a Dominican, I have worked with others side by side with Haitians since before the earthquake: please do note how I don’t claim to have worked “for” or “helping” Haitians or anyone else, but “with” them. We have brought Dominicans to Haiti and Haitians to the Dominican Republic to work together in a mutual, technical environment where we are just people sharing, collaborating, creating and where race and nationality plays no role, other than the common notion of sharing a geographical space and a sense of connection and closeness. We have organized bi-national hackathons and events (such as TEDxSantoDomingo and TEDxPortauPrince) where we have had Haitians as guest speakers in the Dominican Republic and Dominicans as guest speakers in Haïti. We have even brought business associations from both countries together to sign collaboration agreements for the advancement of their communities.
I view Haitians as hard working people, both in their own country and as immigrants here. Haitians have provided me with housing, food, learning and opportunities many times more than I have provided the same for them. Most of the Haitians I’ve had the opportunity to work with speak four languages: Creole, French, English and Spanish, which often makes me feel as underprepared and a little ashamed of my ignorance in their presence.
It always amazes me how, for such a large immigrant community (half a million people or around 5% of our population), their presence in criminal activities and police reports is extremely low and largely inexistent even though they are tightly and physically embedded in our daily lives.
When the sugar cane industry collapsed, Haitian workers moved from the fields to the cities and became our main source of labor in the construction industry; many others moved to other rural towns and continue to work in agriculture. Haitians build our houses, grow our food, sell fruits on fruit stalls in the corners of our streets, and more and more guard our residential and commercial buildings as both security watchmen and handymen.
And they do it all of the above for extremely low compensation rates or wages, which benefits us and our economy: arguably cheaper house, cheaper food, cheaper security, which we are happy to pay. Yet, so far we fail to register them as formal workers, preventing them from social security benefits and not making any deductions or tax contributions which more than cover any “burden” they as a community could be imposing on our health and social services infrastructure.
I too feel indignation regarding the Constitutional Court ruling that strips individuals of foreign (who are we kidding, it’s Haitians we’re talking about) ancestors born in the Dominican Republic of their citizenship, going back all the way to 1929. In particular when the bi-national agreement to govern the import of Haitian temporary workers for the sugar cane industry in 1952 (“Acuerdo sobre la Contratación en Haití y la entrada en la República Dominicana de Jornaleros Temporeros Haitianos”), signed by the Presidents of both nations, establishes a clear responsibility of the Dominican businesses hiring them to provide paperwork and cover the repatriation expenses once the harvest time was over. Do note that at the time and during the following decades, the sugar cane industry and its businesses were largely State-owned or worked closely with the government as Sugar was considered until the seventies to be the “backbone” of the Dominican economy. It is my understanding that the 1952 agreement was followed by similar agreements signed on 1959 and 1966 and later substituted by annual contracts during the seventies through which the Dominican government paid millions of dollars to the Haitian government for its workers and, always according to my understanding, failed to enforce its role and responsibility in providing proper paperwork and repatriating them. But don’t take my words on this as I’m no historian or expert in the matter.
But that is as far as our similarities go. Unlike the foreign that comes to visit and help the poor helpless people that need saving and saviors, I live in the real world and observe real facts.
And while I don’t often agree with governments and their officials, this time I believe they are doing the right thing, correcting not only the wrong of the Constitutional Court ruling, but also the wrongs of decades of exclusion, exploitation, discrimination and unfair hiring and compensation.
For the first time, Haitian immigrants have the opportunity for real to legalize their status and continue to provide services and contribute to Dominican society in an orderly manner, now with formal status and legal rights and claims to social services and employment opportunities.
I do find it mind boggling and unjustifiable to require from those born here and even many born here from parents born here to justify their nationality and produce paperwork going back to 1929. But the government has to abide by laws and can’t ignore a Constitutional Court ruling. Which is why it formally responded with an actual Law and a formal plan to make things right.
While my knowledge of the process is limited and that of a regular citizen informed by the media and official sources, I understand that the Dominican government has offered a dual plan for both “Naturalización” and “Regularización” of those born of foreign ancestors and immigrants who entered the country before 2011 to voluntarily present their paperwork and apply for legal status.
Again, if I’m not mistaken, the government has extended the deadlines for both processes from October 2014 to February 2015 and June to August 2015 and as many Haitians found it hard to obtain paperwork from their own government, the Dominican government started to accept as temporary proof of documentation a simple receipt of request for papers provided by the Haitian Embassy to its people.
According to official statements made to the press (thank you Google), almost 9000 people have applied for naturalization and almost 300,000 for regularization of their status at 25 centers throughout the country.
The burden lies now on the Dominican government to provide documentation for all those that meet the requirement (according to public declarations, it seems around 40% of those who applied to naturalization and 82% of those who applied for regularization).
But to call for and end of military aid to the Dominican Republic on the grounds of this situation is ridiculous. I am all for it as our military forces present multiple challenges that should be addressed before any more money is thrown to them. I am all for it as I believe in peace not armies.
If you want someone to blame or punish, call for action against the Constitutional Court, or those not providing paperwork to citizens (the Haitian government in this case), not those trying to make right an immense wrong.
Carlos,
I disagree with most of your post but it is important for international audiences to see that even people so far to the left on this issue as you are agree the way this problem is presented abroad, by people like Azimi and his ilk, is absurd.
The TC made the only rational decision they could, I don’t know why this is so hard to understand: the offspring of journaleros were not Dominican, this is recognized by BOTH countries’ Constitutions. The Dominican government did, for a long time, neglect this issue because of a lack of organization (common among poor countries) and corruption, that’s on us and our sole responsibility. However, the law also called for the honoring of citizenships for those who had (erroneously) been given papers (Group A) AND for those who hadn’t but had lived in the Dominican Republic for a long time but were never registered (Group B). This is the only rational path to take because otherwise we’d be handing out citizenships to anyone who just crossed the border. No country will or should agree to that.
For crissakes, we’re fixing this issue! We have been! But this international hit job against the DR is full of, when not half-truths, complete lies. Which is why even people like you, Pedro Cabiya, me and a million others who were to the left of this issue have had to stand up and call this nonsense for what it is! Why talk about the first part of the law and not the rest? Why only look at the wrongs (from 80 years of bureaucratic organization) and not the commendable efforts to get everything organized? American ambassador Wally Brewster, Rep. Charlie Rangel, Spain, Canada and the US have all supported and commended the regularization program.
Why? Perhaps because it’s easier to jump in the popular outrage bandwagon, no matter how ill-informed, than to take the courageous but lonely position of calling this BS for what it is. It is so sad that anti-Dominicanism is the hip thing now and doubly sad when people like Azami, who supposedly “loves” the DR, helps contribute to it.
Using discrimination of the skin tone is a scapegoat, and is not true Because we value our African, European, and all the roots in DR The NGOs, the Clintons, and other greedy people want the Gold and gasoline billions of dollars of the island. This was written by others people and true. Dominican Republic Gives always 100% free healthcare and education to the illegal Haitian people and Dominicans of Haitian descent. Hospitals and centers are so Filled With illegal Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent, and the Dominican Citizens are That waiting for hospital beds are filled by the Haitian illegals. The fact the all the nations of the world put together for Haiti Have not done a fraction of what the DR has done and Continues to do is not under discussion. Have crossed 54 thousand women the border to give birth in Dominican hospitals just in the last 12 months Representing and expenditure of 150 million dollars just in That period just for That concept and making our maternal-infant mortality rates collapse to poor African country levels since They cross the border on the With same day and no clinical history or medical records. When French paratroopers and US emergency services arrived after the earthquake in Haiti, Dominican firemen, armed forces, dominican red cross, doctors, nurses, trucks, ships, helicopters, mobile hospitals and Dominican government money in Hundreds of millions of dollars HAD Already been there for 2 weeks !!!! Our government has dedicated the international airport of Barahona for the exclusive use of aid coming for Haiti. Receive all our ports Thousands of containers destined for Haiti That eats into Because our ports Haiti has no ports. Since 2010, 154,000 trucks container destined to Haiti Have Entered our ports. Our highways, That We Build with loans from the IDB, IMF, World Bank and other Institutions controlled by the US are full of trucks destined to Haiti without paying any toll and we also do not charge them for the use of our ports. 61,000 Haitian children are in our public schools, the same Schools That Do not have sufficient space for many poor Dominican children. 35 thousand in government subsidized study our university. 18% of our health budget is specialized for providing medical services to Haitians. ,, Although our law forbids more than 20% Employing Foreign Nationals in any business, some of our Agroindustries 80% employ Haitians and our hotel industry is now 40% Haitian, and the government just looks the other way Because Of The Human Drama. “We give everything for Decades many Haitians and Dominican nationality Including They give birth to eleven Their child, and millions of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent live all around and Within the Dominican, and of Dominican trees Deforestation is happening, Just Like They Do in Haiti. Laws are not respected. Is okay to live with a Certain amount of people, but Dominican Republic can not take the rest 10 million Haitians Brought to the over 10 million population there is in Dominican Republic already. There is no birth control and overpopulation there is in Haiti. Haitians are 86% of the immigrants in Dominican Republic.I did not write this but is true. Many Haitians put many Dominicans including the mulattos through the sword. Dominicans paid the Haitians $8.61 million dollars for the dictator Trujillo’s actions on the Parsley Massacre. After slavery was abolished, mulatto, and white Dominicans paid the Haitian dictator the money the Haitians owed France for killing the French.
The Haitian Constitution and State of 1804. That racial bias in favor of Noir and opposed to White or mixed-racial groups was the crucial seed for the evolution of race relations on the island of Hispaniola. This racial bias is thus the foundation on which the racial discourse on the island would take shape. In Haiti it would lead to periodic bloodshed between Blacks and Mulattos. Eventually used by the
Duvaliers, Papa and his son, during the 20th century to dominate and push out mulattos.
But even in the 19th century you had Haitians leaders like The Emperor Faustin I using similar racial tactics to hold on to power. In the DR, the evolution of race was fundamentally different than in Haiti, as Professor Pons points out. Largely due to the hacienda or cattle ranch nature of the economic model, Dominicans NEVER developed the highly exploitative system that the French practiced in Haiti. Haiti turned itself inward and made “White” a Non-Citizen in their own State. Look no further for the explanation for this The Roots of the Division question. The Imperial Haitian Constitution of 1804 that denied whites property rights and
CITIZENSHIP based on RACIAL PREFERENCE. As Toussaint Louverture had done two decades earlier, the Haitians abolished slavery. In order to raise funds for the huge indemnity of 150 million francs that Haiti agreed to pay the former French colonists, and which was subsequently lowered to 60 million francs, the Haitian government imposed heavy taxes on the Dominicans. Since Haiti was unable to adequately provision its army, the occupying forces largely survived by commandeering or confiscating food and supplies at gunpoint.
Attempts to redistribute land conflicted with the system of communal land tenure (terrenos comuneros),which had arisen with the ranching economy, and some people resented being forced to grow cash crops under Boyer and Joseph Inginac’s Code
Rural.[55] In the rural and rugged mountainous areas, the Haitian administration was usually too inefficient to enforce its own laws. It was in the city of Santo Domingo that the effects of the occupation were most acutely felt, and it was there that the movement for independence originated.
Haiti’s constitution forbade white elites from owning land, and the major landowning families were forcibly deprived of their properties.
All levels of education collapsed; the university was shut down, as it was starved both of resources and students, with young Dominican men from 16 to 25 years old being drafted into the Haitian army. Boyer’s occupation troops, who were largely Dominicans, were unpaid, and had to “forage and sack” from Dominican civilians.
Haiti imposed a “heavy tribute” on the Dominican people.
As a result of the slaughter, the Dominican Republic paid to Haiti an indemnity of US$ 525,000 (equivalent to $8.61 million in 2014). The genocide sought to be justified on the pretext of fearing infiltration, but was actually also retaliation, commented on both in national currencies, as well as having been informed by the Military Intelligence Service (the dreaded SIM), that the Haitian government was cooperating with a plan that sought to overthrow Dominican exiles.
Reasons Why the United States, the Clintons, and NGOS want to Unify Dominican Republic. This is part of an article. Rodham’s company got gold mining rights STIs in December 2012, ACCORDING TO the VCS press release. Schweizer’s publisher, HarperCollins Said in a press release Thursday That it ‘reveals how the Clintons Went from “dead broke” on leaving the White House to Being millionaires, Describing in detail the way in Which the Clintons habitually blur the lines Between politics, philanthropy, and business. ” The Clintons’ family philanthropy meat under fire in February for admitting It had accepted money from foreign Governments Directly Including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman.Some Of Those donations meat while Mrs. Clinton was the US secretary of state. Schweizer’s exhaustively researched book raises serious questions about the sources of the Clintons’ sudden wealth, Their ethical judgment, and Hillary’s fitness for high public office, “Bellow added. Mrs. Clinton was America’s first lady and US shuhenator before losing the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama in 2008 and joining His administration the following year.Someone’s comment and true. Trujillo, who is a product of the U.S. invasion, committed the genocide referred in many Dominican Republic bashing articles. After Trujillo died, corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen brought Haitians or looked the other way to allow them to come and forced to lower the salaries of poor workers, to a point where now we have a great part of the population unemployed. Does it ring a bell to something similar happening in the USA?
Now Finally something is being done to correct the situation. The government is under fire, because now coming to D.R. to say illegally is not going to be easy as it once was. I will give you an advice. Help Haiti not by forcing the Dominicans to take care of them, but for Haiti to help take care of itself.
Someone wrote this and true. The US invaded and occupied the DR Between 1916-1924 and brought` Haitians to cut sugarcane During WWI, to pay a debt owed to US banks, And Then at later it was it supported the dictators (Trujillo from 1930 to 1961, Balaguer for over 20 years Until the mid-1990s).
Pregnant illegal Haitians in Dominican Republic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICPm1uCaFTs More than 90% of Haitians and Their descendants arrived in the DR in the late 1980s onwards and did so on Their Own. Also, the Supreme Court has only clarification capabilities, not retroactive. The only thing the court did clear up Once Again With what every Dominican constitution since 1929 has Said That Those born to people in transit (That term include illegal immigrants) are not Entitled to Dominican citizenship, but rather to the citizenship of Their Parents. Also, any identity documents fraudulently acquired are void. Most of Those Haitians That thought HAD Dominican citizenship in reality They Never Had It Because They did not qualify. What the Constitution Court was ordered to put an end to the confusion by revising the Civil Registry from 1929 to 2007 for all the people registered illegally. Then, eleven They are Identified, the legal status of the generation That migrated illegally or with a temp permit and stayed illegally, will be legalized and Their descendants, due to the absorption clause in the law, will Automatically Receive a legitimate Dominican citizenship. Those That Qualify For This Amounts to some 26,000 people from over 100 nationalities, but of some 14,000 Those are Haitian. A grace period will be Given For Those Identified in the Civil Registry Their regularization process to start. Those That do not start the process (and Those That are not in the Civil Registry) Eleven the grace period is over, will be subject to deportation. The court ruling is legitimately whos Those Haitians With fraudulent documents and many Decades in the DR as Dominicans. The anti-Dominican campaign Internationally That has-been spread and based on misinformation, exaggerated numbers, and and outright lies is just that, an attempt at discrediting the Dominican government. The UN and the European Union Already Looked into the process and due to That, Became aware all the lies many NGOs and the Haitian diplomats Have Been spreading around the world in an Attempt to discredit the DR. The UN and the EU now support the Dominican regularization process. Such a shame so many people Have Been In This dooped Reacting and are based on incorrect assumptions and half truth. In any case, all rulings from the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court are not reversible, They are fi at and can not be appealed. Just … Respect Our Laws. .. As we respect other Countries.
I have witnessed how the Dominicans are living in New York City. I read all your comments and they are not possitive. I guess you guys don’t understand the universal human suffering.