Vol. 78/No. 21      June 2, 2014

A new constitution adopted in 2010 denied Dominican citizenship to children whose parents were not legal permanent residents of the country. Last September the Constitutional Court issued a ruling making the change retroactive to 1929, stripping citizenship rights from more than 200,000 people. As many as 1 million Haitians live and work in the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican capitalist class and their government treat Haitians much the same way the U.S. government and bosses treat immigrants in the United States — as a source of cheap labor and a scapegoat for high unemployment and other social problems.

“In Haiti there’s not enough work, so people go to the Dominican Republic to look for jobs,” said Jean Sylvain, a retired worker of Haitian descent who used to live in the Dominican Republic.

Roger Biamby, a leader of the Haitian League for Human Rights, which called the protest, said he’s heard from people in the Dominican Republic that “the military has already deported truckloads of people. Many of them are people who have never lived in Haiti and don’t even speak Creole.”

Speakers at the rally included State Rep. Daphne Campbell and several current and former local politicians who are Haitian, as well as representatives from the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Haitian community group Veye-Yo, Socialist Workers Party and others.

“What’s happening in the Dominican Republic reminds me of the situation of Black people here before the civil rights movement,” Ernst Rosemond, a retired language instructor, told the Militant. “It’s a political issue, and it’s racist.”

In the Dominican capital Santo Domingo young people affected by the denial of citizenship have rallied in front of the National Palace.

The lower house of the legislature passed a bill May 16 that would grant citizenship to children born to foreign parents, if they have government papers, which many working people lack.  
 
 
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