Dominican leader explains ruling in “diplomatic offensive”

Santo Domingo.- In what local media view as a “diplomatic offensive,” president Danilo Medina met in the National Palace Friday with 16 Latin America ambassadors and diplomats to explain the breadth and reach of the Government’s measures to regulate the status of thousands of Haitians’ offspring, left “stateless” by the Constitutional Court’s recent controversial ruling.

The chief executive had reportedly met previously with European Union ambassadors at the National Palace.

"Medina yesterday began a series of talks and contacts with members of the diplomatic corps in the country to keep them and their respective Governments abreast on the reality of the Constitutional Court ruling, which seeks to regulate immigrants in the country, in the most humane and fair manner," said Interior and Police minister José Ramón Fadul before the meeting.

Medina has also spoke with the Dominican ambassadors in Washington, the UN, and the OAS, and with other Governments and forums, regarding the Government’s decision to enforce fair and humane immigration law.

Fadul said the President decided to convene and converse with the Dominican and foreign diplomats to explain the Plan to Regulate Foreigners, and the ruling’s positive effects. "We must clarify the information distorted from reality which has been published against the Court’s ruling and the good measures the Government has begun to apply to encourage thousands of undocumented immigrants to regulate in accordance with the country’s laws."