On Sept. 23 the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court issued a decision effectively denationalizing an estimated 250,000 people residing in that country. The ruling retroactively denies Dominican nationality to anyone born after 1929 who did not have at least one parent of Dominican blood. Human rights groups plan to challenge the ruling before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where it could in theory still be overruled. An immigrant census released earlier this year estimated there were 245,000 Dominican-born, first-generation children of immigrants living in the country. But the number affected by the ruling is likely to be exponentially higher, activists said, because it applies to other generations as well. The vast majority of immigrant children—210,000—were of Haitian descent. It’s estimated there are another 460,000 non-native Haitian migrants living in the country.
Suddenly Stateless In Dominican Republic
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
A Reflection for Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time, by Valerie Schultz
Much ink has been spilled over this presidential election—but not nearly as much as was used in a long history of presidential memoirs and biographies.
As I sit sore and tired, I cannot also help but think that the N.Y.C. Marathon for me is a thin space, a space where I can easily see God’s presence in the world.
Archbishop Domenico Battaglia of Naples has been named as one of the prelates Pope Francis will make a cardinal on December 7th.