Chairman Monestime sponsors legislation condemning Dominican Republic's planned deportation of Dominicans of Haitian descent

(MIAMI-DADE, FL) – Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Jean Monestime is sponsoring legislation condemning the Dominican Republic’s impending deportation of large numbers of Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian migrant workers.

The legislation is scheduled for consideration by the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, June 30 in the Commission Chamber on the second floor of the Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 NW 1st St.

A 2013 Dominican Republic court decision stripped the citizenship of more than 200,000 Dominicans born after 1929 to parents not of Dominican ancestry. The Dominican Republic subsequently passed a law creating a naturalization process for Dominicans of Haitian descent and a regularization process for Haitian migrant workers, but both processes are riddled with bureaucratic hurdles that could soon lead to mass deportations as well as create a category of second-class citizenship for those of Haitian descent who remain in the country.

“The Dominican government’s outrageous conduct toward citizens and migrants of Haitian descent flies in the face of human rights and recalls the 1937 government-sponsored genocide of thousands of Haitians in the Dominican Republic,” Chairman Monestime said. “I join the international community in vigorously condemning these racially motivated policies and call on the Dominican government to stop the deportations and restore the rights of citizens of Haitian ancestry.”