In a ruling issued yesterday, Wednesday 25 September, the court of last instance in the Dominican Republic, the Constitutional Tribunal confirmed that only the children of parents with legal status in the Dominican Republic could be granted Dominican nationality.
The ruling establishes that the children of citizens in transit, born in this country, may not be granted Dominican nationality. This same provision has been set out in the Dominican Constitution since 1929. This provides an answer to those who wanted the provision only to be applied after the passing of the 2010 Constitution.
By means of sentence TC/0168/13, the high court also calls upon the Executive Branch to proceed with the implementation of the national plan for the regularization of illegal foreigners living in the country.
The court ordered the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to audit the civil registry from 1929 and asked the Department of Immigration to issue provisional residence permits to the children of Haitian parents.
The court also orders the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to carry out a detailed audit of the birth-record books of the Civil Registry of the Dominican Republic from 21 June 1929 until now, in order to identify and draw up a documentary or digital list of all the foreigners listed.
The JCE is also to record all illegally registered foreigners on a second list because they do not meet the conditions required by the Constitution of the Republic for obtaining Dominican nationality under jus soli, which will be called ‘the List of Foreigners Improperly Listed in the Civil Registry of the Dominican Republic’.”
The court orders the creation of special annual registration books for the births of foreigners from 21 June 1929 until 18 April 2007, the date on which the JCE put into practice the Registration Book of Children of Non-Resident Foreign Mothers in the Dominican Republic, by means of Resolution 02-2007.
Then the court orders the administrative transfer of the births registered on the list of improperly registered foreigners to the new registration books for the births of this type, according to the year that corresponds to each one.
The court orders the notification of all births transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, so that they may, in turn, carry out the corresponding notifications, both to the individuals whom these births concern as well as to the consulates and/or embassies or diplomatic legations, according to each case, for the pertinent legal ends.
The court further orders the JCE to send the list of improperly registered foreigners to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, which heads the National Migration Council, in order that, in accordance with the mandate that is granted by Article 151 of the Migration Law (285-04), they may proceed in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 151, within 90 days after the notification of the sentence, the national normalization plan.
The TC confirms that it should be stressed that the implementation of the national plan for the normalization of the illegal foreigners living in the country will have a very positive effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of foreigners, since it will normalize their migratory status, thus effectively contributing to promoting respect for their dignity and the protection of their fundamental rights inherent to the social and democratic rule of law.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2013/09/26/i403882_tribunal-constitucional-establece-criterio-nacionalidad.html