DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

While the situation is more common with recent Haitian migrant arrivals, the lack of legal documentation also affects hundreds of thousands of persons who have lived in the Dominican Republic all their life and generations of their families, too.

Hoy newspaper carries a report of the community of El Berrinche where many long time residents do not have civil identity. The tragedy worsens when a woman does not have ID, and then has children. Like herself, her children will be able to finish grade school, and maybe even continue into high school but they will not be able to graduate from school and without legal status, they will have a hard time getting a good-paying job.

Over the years, hundreds of thousands have found ways to irregularly get an ID. People can recall the extreme case of a Belgian Roman Catholic priest Pedro Ruquoy who served as father to declare...