Juliana Dequis Pierre, whose case was used by the Constitutional Court in its review to rule on who is Dominican, will be able to regularize her status adhering to the benefit of a provisional residence permit. Her case was used as an example in the review of the status of thousands of people who the Central Electoral Board (JCE) registry department had questioned how their papers had been obtained.
In the specific case of Pierre, the court revoked the judgment 473/2012 by the Civil and Commercial Court of Monte Plata after determining that while Pierre was born in the Dominican Republic she is the daughter of foreigners who were here “in transit”, and who did not have legal status. The judgment says this does not give her the legal right to Dominican nationality according to Art. 11.1 of the Dominican Constitution of 1966 that was in effect at the time of her birth.
El Caribe reports that Pierre is a single mother who has four children under the age of 12 with different fathers and who live with her parents while she commutes to work as a domestic servant in Santo Domingo from Monday to Saturday, making RD$6,000 a month. The legal status of the family had been in limbo after the JCE questioned the legality of the mother’s Dominican birth certificate.
By means of sentence TC/0168/13, the high court also called upon the Executive Branch to proceed with the implementation of the national plan for the regularization of illegal foreigners living in the country. While the court ordered the JCE to audit the civil registry from 1929 it also authorized the Department of Immigration to issue provisional residence permits to all the children of Haitian parents found in the same situation as Pierre. This can later be changed to permanent status. The permit would also enable people caught in identity limbo to regularize the status of their children who are registered in school. Their children’s children born in the Dominican Republic would then be Dominicans, putting an end to generations of irregularities.
The Constitutional Court is the court of last instance in the Dominican Republic. The case can continue to be heard abroad.
On the downside, though, as foreigners Pierre and her family may not qualify for a series of social benefits available to the poor in the Dominican Republic.
The sentence covers the case of thousands of immigrants who did not first obtain legal status as foreign residents prior to obtaining Dominican identity documents. Many, through legal assistance, were able to obtain Dominican identity documents that now are being questioned as irregular and invalid.
The Dominican constitutions since 1929 have noted that anyone who is in the country “in transit” does not qualify for Dominican nationality, despite having been born here. The measure affects foreigners of all nationalities.
The sentence TC/0168/13 confirms an earlier decision on the interpretation to the “in transit” clause that had been made by the Supreme Court of Justice in 2005. The Constitutional Court has replaced the Supreme Court of Justice to rule on constitutional issues.
www.diariolibre.com/dlenglish/2013/09/26/i403908_constitutional-tribunal-establishes-criteria-for-nationality.html