Dominican Republic legalizes 105,000 Haitians of 288,466 who applied

Santo Domingo.- After16 months of work the government program to legalize foreigners is coming to anend with the delivery of the last ID cards to the thousands of theoverwhelmingly Haitian illegal aliens who qualified as a legal immigrant orresident.

National program coordinatorSamir Santos on Tuesday said at Interior and Police Ministry headquarters (Huacal)the long lines which had roiled local residents and snarled traffic have disappeared.

Interior and Police Ministryofficials will now continue handing out the last of the IDs in Santiago, PuertoPlata, La Romana, San Pedro, Barahona and Valverde delivering the cards to theapplicants who applied, supervised by Santos and deputy minister WashingtonGonzález.

Interior and Police Ministryhad delivered 105,000 IDs to residents in various forms until last week, accordingto its most recent report.

The program began inSantiago June 12 last year with the first foreigners registered last June, with288,466 applicants in 24 centers across the country and continued to receivethe documents from the foreigners which had registered, delivering all the IDs toall provinces after that.