Army General Rubern Paulino said his agency, with help from the military, will begin patrolling neighborhoods with large numbers of migrants Thursday, following the expiration of a deadline set for non-citizens to secure legal residency.
The Government of the Dominican Republic is advancing plans to deport as many as half a million Haitian migrants.
The deadline of 7:00pm on Tuesday, June 16 set for non-citizens to secure citizenship will soon pass. After this deadline, Dominican-Haitians without the proper documents will be eligible for deportation.
Army General Rubern Paulino said his agency, with help from the military, will begin patrolling neighborhoods with large numbers of migrants Thursday, following the expiration of a deadline set for non-citizens to secure legal residency.
The government has already made preparations to expedite deportations. So far, 12 buses, seven light trucks, and two ambulances have been prepared and processing centers have been opened along the border with Haiti. Agents and soldiers of the state have been provided with additional training in human rights in preparation of deportation operations.
In light of the history of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, these recent developments have been striking fears of an ethnic cleansing or genocide. This is not the first time the Dominican Government has forcibly removed Haitians.
In October 1937, under the direct order of Dominican president Rafael Trujillo, as many as 30,000 Haitians, many who were Dominican born, were executed along the borderlands. This slaughter is known as the Parsley Massacre but by the more familiar names of El Corte (the cutting) in the Dominican Republic and as Kout Kouto (the knife blow) in Haiti.
The Dominican Government launched this program in response to international criticism of a 2013 ruling by its Supreme Court that stripped citizenship and nationality away from people born as far back as in 1929.
Under this program, the government said non-citizens who could establish their identity and date of arrival as before October 2011 could be granted legal residency. However, of the estimated 500,000 people this program will affect, only about half of them have even begun the application process. Only 10,000 have met all the requirements and only 300 have actually received permits.
Of those who attempt to secure certification, several systematic disadvantages prevent their ability to complete the process. Many Dominican-Haitians do not have a birth certificate, a common problem since Dominican born Haitians are likely to be born in rural sugar-cane cutting communities (bateyes) or semi-urban slums (barrios). Without access to clinical paperwork, they are incapable of registering for documentation. Even if they have the paperwork, many cannot afford the $42 fee, an amount that is equal to 4 days worth of wages. Those who cannot secure transportation to venture into a major city where immigration offices are set up cannot register either. Even if they do, many are illiterate and have trouble spelling their names or translating their Creole into Spanish.
While hundreds of thousands of people remain in legal limbo, they are still vulnerable and technically eligible for detention and deportation.
The Dominican Government has said it will grant citizenship to 53,000 people who lost their citizenship in the Supreme Court ruling in 2013. However, people in that category are yet to receive their documents.