Following a call by the mayor of New York on Sunday, 21 June 2015, to boycott tourism, conference and conventions in the Dominican Republic as a way to put pressure on the government to stop the repatriation of illegal Haitians, the Dominican Ambassador in Washington, Jose Tomas Perez, has said it was an intolerant act of political hypocrisy on the part of New York City Bill De Blasio.
Tomas Perez sent a letter to the mayor pointing out that he had never heard him say anything before about the situation in Haiti and that he considered his call to boycott tourism to the country was not just an insult against a friendly nation, but was also an insult to all of the Dominicans who supported Mr. De Blasios’s bid to become mayor of New York City.
Tomas Perez went on to say that De Blasio was apparently unfamiliar of the history of the relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and that no country had done more for Haitians than the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Ambassador reminded the mayor that the DR had authorized the legalization of more than 340,000 Haitians who worked in tourism, agriculture and construction.
Ambassador Perez explained that just as in the United States, the Dominican Republic has to regularize the status of those who are undocumented in its country and that the National Foreigner Legalization Plan (PNRE) was the first step in achieving this goal. The ambassador also said that the Dominican Republic had issued several appeals to the international community to assist the country’s efforts to deal with the immigration problem with Haiti and had never received a satisfactory answer.
Tomas Perez said he would have liked to have heard instead, that the mayor had a plan that would focus the efforts of the international community to assist Haiti and the Dominican Republic to address the persistent poverty in Haiti, rather than calling for a boycott to tourism in the DR.
De Blasio had also been criticized by the Dominican community in New York for missing the Dominican Day Parade and for arriving late to the Flight AA587 memorial last year.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2015/06/23/377425/gobierno-sale-al-frente-a-crticas-del-alcalde-de-ny
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/does-nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-have-latino-problem-n266286
http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/bill-de-blasio-criticizes-dominican-republic-over-deportation-plan-1.10566781