A Dominican government delegation is traveling to Venezuela today, Wednesday 13 November to respond to lobbying reportedly carried out by the government of Haiti for a repeal of the government decision to apply the law and grant residence not Dominican citizenship to thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic illegally. The commission will explain the scope and impact of the recent Constitutional Court Ruling that calls for the Medina administration to implement the National Immigration Regularization Plan that had been included in the Immigration Law in 2004 but has never been applied.
The delegation members are Minister of the Presidency Gustavo Montalvo, Immigration Council chairman Jose Ramon Fadul and Presidential legal advisor Cesar Pina Toribio, as reported in Diario Libre.
El Dia reports that the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) and ambassador Miguel Mejia will also be part of the Dominican mission. El Dia says that the initiative came about after the government received information that the government of Haiti asked Venezuela to remove the privileges of the PetroCaribe oil financing program as a response to the Constitutional Ruling 168-13 that orders the implementation of the regularization of foreigners plan and confirms past Constitutional rulings that does not grant birth right citizenship to children of temporary workers unless they had obtained permanent residency permits in the country.
Fadul told Diario Libre: “We are going to explain the scope of the ruling, the way we have been doing so to the embassies, but it does not have anything to do with conflicts with Venezuela” he said.
El Caribe adds that Immigration director Jose Ricardo Taveras will also be on the delegation.