Vol. 79/No. 25      July 20, 2015

For decades bosses in the Dominican Republic have taken advantage of the immense poverty in neighboring Haiti to exploit Haitian workers as a source of cheap labor in agriculture, construction and other industries. Haitian immigrants and their descendants face widespread discrimination in housing, jobs, education and access to government services.

Current threats of mass deportations flow from two steps taken by Dominican authorities in the last couple years. A 2013 Dominican Constitutional Court ruling made previous laws retroactive to 1929 denying citizenship to those born in the Dominican Republic whose parents were not legal permanent residents. Following protests, a law was passed in 2014 offering a “path to citizenship.” It required those affected to register as foreigners and apply for residency.

By the Feb. 1 deadline, only about 8,000 people registered, out of as many as 200,000 potentially affected. Dominican officials routinely deny requests to issue birth certificates and other documents to those of Haitian descent.

The government also announced a program for undocumented immigrants to “regularize” their status. Immigrants were told to register by June 17 and provide proof of identity and entry into the Dominican Republic before October 2011. But many Haitian immigrants say they were born at home without any official record.

“Even under the best of circumstances folks who are rural and poor would be incredibly hard pressed to meet any of the criteria [for citizenship],” Dominican-American author Junot Díaz said at a forum in Miami June 24. He spoke along with prominent Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat at a program attended by some 150 people.

News reports said that Díaz had joined a call for a boycott of the Dominican Republic promoted by many opponents of the government’s anti-Haitian policies.

Díaz issued a statement correcting the record. “I did not call for a boycott of the Dominican Republic,” he said. “Those of us who are in solidarity with the denationalized must continue to pressure the Dominican government to return citizenship rights … and to create a just, transparent process for protecting the rights of undocumented migrants.”

The British Guardian reported only 10,000 of the 250,000 who registered by the June 17 deadline met the requirements. Many more just didn’t register.

Dominican officials have made contradictory statements on when mass deportations may begin. They say some 25,000 immigrants have “voluntarily” returned to Haiti since June 18.

“There is a great deal of tension and panic among Haitians in the Dominican Republic, where violence against our people has a long history,” Jean-Robert Lafortune of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition told the Militant at the June 25 rally. “We have already had the first lynching in this crisis.”

Henry Claude Jean, a Haitian immigrant who worked shining shoes, was found hanged from a tree in the Dominican city of Santiago Feb. 11. Police said he was killed by other Haitians in a robbery; his family disputes that claim.

“The governments of the Americas should express their outrage about these crimes against humanity, but no one has said a word,” Lafortune said.

Many working people in the Dominican community of South Florida disagreed with the call for a boycott.

“I don’t like what the army does to workers from Haiti,” Diego Sandoval, a delivery driver, told the Militant, “but I don’t think a boycott is right. The Dominican economy is very weak. Sure it’s stronger than Haiti, but we don’t have much either. Boycott will hurt Haitians and Dominican people, too.”

“The Haitian people are in a desperate situation,” said Radhamés Guilano, a Miami shopkeeper from the Dominican Republic. “With the earthquake they lost almost everything. Hundreds of thousands have no jobs, no place to live, no medical care, nothing. So they walk across the border to the Dominican Republic because as bad as we have it in our country, it’s better than Haiti.

“Our situation will only get worse until working people of both countries find our common voice to fight together against the bosses who exploit and abuse us all,” he said.  
 
 
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