Feared Haitian group tries to upend legalization push: Dominican official

Santo Domingo.- Interior and Police minister Jose Ramon Fadul on Tuesday said state security agencies investigate national groups and the Tonton Macoutes (feared Haitian paramilitary groups) in Haiti, which allegedly seek to boycott the government’s plan to legalize undocumented aliens, local media report.

He said a plan is underway to press the country into another extension of the program but reiterated that the deadline for aliens to register expires tomorrow.

The official however didn’t identify the local groups behind the alleged plan to discredit the program.

"There are groups sponsoring and trying to create confusion, first with the information that there’s an extension, second, taking a massive number of Haitians to the (registration) centers. There are Tonton Macoutes in this, and there are areas of the country where that is taking place. There are social groups that want to create confusion. No one can tell me that 1,000 will go to a registration center all of a sudden. Who mobilizes them? Who pays the transport?," the official said.

Regarding the deportations of the mostly Haitian undocumented foreigners, Fadul said they’ll take place from 6am to 5pm, adding that that when an illegal alien is detained they’ll get food and health care, "because they are human beings with dignity."