President Danilo Medina said that the issue of immigrants who have not resolved their legal status is a human problem that needs to be resolved. When interviewed on the subject during his visit to Barrick Gold yesterday, Tuesday 8 October, he gave his impressions after meeting with children of immigrants whose Dominican IDs were revoked after investigations showed they had been irregularly obtained. Medina described the case of a student who could not get a high school degree to enroll in university because they did not have their cedula.
Last month, the Constitutional Court upheld a previous Supreme Court of Justice interpretation of “in transit” in the Constitution to mean not having legal status. Medina said that the ruling was true to the Constitution and the Executive Branch did not have the faculty to change the decision.
He said that after the visit to the Presidential Palace by undocumented Haitians and institutions that campaign on their behalf on Monday, 7 October, he promised to start consultations in coordination with the government bodies that have prerogatives over the measures that were taken. The Constitutional Court ordered the government to expedite issuing residency papers to immigrants who had been living in the country long-term. One of the bigger obstacles to the regularization of immigrants from Haiti is that most people in Haiti do not have legal identification papers in the first place. When they migrate, their identity is difficult to establish.
Supporters of the rights of hundreds of thousands of migrants and their descendants are campaigning for the government to submit a bill granting amnesty to benefit people born to illegal migrants in the Dominican Republic.
www.presidencia.gob.do/comunicados/presidente-medina-califica-de-drama-humano-caso-jovenes-de-ascendencia-haitiana