High Court’s ruling on Dominican nationality roils Haitians’ offspring

Santo Domingo.- While the Immigration Agency called the Constitutional Court’s landmark ruling on who is Dominican “historic" and the Duarte Institute "correct," for the think tank Centro Bono, it was "aberrant."

"This sentence grabs the bull by the horns, it puts a finger on the sore," said Immigration director José R. Taveras.

The ruling rejects a restraining order filed by Juliana Dequis Pierre -whose parents are undocumented Haitian immigrants- to demand a Dominican I.D. (cedula) from the Central Electoral Board (JCE) within 10 days.

Taveras said the ruling provides a two year period to definitively resolve the limbo he called a “drama,” of the offspring of undocumented foreigners.

For Duarte Institute member Demosthenes Felix, the high Court’s "very correct" ruling interprets the Constitution regarding the Dominican nationality. "In other words, the two basic principles which are required: jus sanguinis, and jus soli, which means by blood and by soil."

For Bono Centro director the priest Mario Serrano, the ruling is "absurd, foolish and unfair" because in his view creates the figure of foreigners in transit in a period spanning 85 years, "to justify the denationalization of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent."

"The Constitutional Court ruling is aberrant. It legitimizes the Electoral Board’s illegal administrative acts, thus affecting the fundamental rights of more than four generations of men and women who’ve formed part of the Dominican people throughout their life," the prelate said.