Thursday, October 24, 2013

Dominicans of Haitian Descent Cast Into Legal Limbo by Court - NYTimes.com

The west of Hispaniola is Haiti.  Haitians
do much of the low wage labor in the Dominican Republic



Thank god for John Bingham the Founding Son who drafted the 14th Amendment which begins "Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside".  That reversed Dred Scott v. Sandford and barred racist measures like the statelessness which the Dominican Republic's Supreme Court has visited upon thousands of persons born in the DR of Haitian parents. - GWC
Dominicans of Haitian Descent Cast Into Legal Limbo by Court - NYTimes.com: 'via Blog this'
by Randall C. Archibold
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — For generations, people of Haitian descent have been an inextricable part of life here, often looked at with suspicion and dismay, but largely relied on all the same to clean rooms, build things cheaply and provide the backbreaking labor needed on the country’s vast sugar plantations.
Now, intensifying a long and furious debate over their place in this society, the nation’s top court has declared that the children of undocumented Haitian migrants — even those born on Dominican soil decades ago — are no longer entitled to citizenship, throwing into doubt the status of tens of thousands of people here who have never known any other national identity.

1 comment:

  1. SHAME. These callous, racist actions of the Dominican Republic government against people of Haitian descent are truly shameful. And even more shameful are the un-Christian rantings of Archbishop Rodriquez, who wholeheartedly embraced this ruling. He sounds like a lowlife politician rather than a compassionate man of God. I truly believe that this is the Government's doing, not the mixed mosaic that is the Dominican people. But perhaps someone , in turn, should investigate the faked birth certificates of Dominicans who -masquerading as Puerto Ricans- come to the United States seeking a better life. Seeking to escape the hopelessness and corruption of the Dominican Republic regime. I don't necessarily begrudge them that all too human impulse. But I do find it both ironic and shameful that their country would -in turn- deny Haitians who have resided there for years, and even Haitians born on their own soil, the same chance to live a better life. If they create a huge minority of second-class, non-citizen, stateless semi-slaves, then they will surely reap the unpleasant consequences in the years to come, They will reap the bitter fruits of what they now sow ....never to fulfill their countries true potential.

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