Haitians’ offspring still gripe despite Dominican Republic’s praised law

Bayaguana, Dominican Republic.- Many descendants of Haitians in this impoverished region aren’t satisfied with the new law despite that it has been hailed for acknowledging the nationality of the offspring of illegal aliens, but leaves out those who weren’t registered in the Civil Registrar, AFP reports.

"I’m glad on the one hand, but not in the other because there are many who were never enrolled in the registry, who are 30 and 35 years of age. Then that those youngsters are out doesn’t make me feel well," said Yolanda Noel, 28, who received her ID as Dominican, but not before 26 years of legal struggles.

The granddaughter of immigrants and mother of four, Noel still faces struggles because the Central Electoral Board, in charge of the Civil Registry, wants to enroll her children as sons of foreigners. "You can’t because you are Haitian," she says she’s been told in Bayaguana’s Office of the Civil Registrar.

Noel says many like her have never obtained documents in Kilombo, a hamlet of some 40 houses on the outskirts of Bayaguana, 50 kilometers north of Santo Domingo. She says in the ancient settlement of Haitian sugarcane cutters (batey) and their offspring.

President Danilo Medina signed bill 169-14 into Law, which grants the children of undocumented immigrants birth certificates and ID cards as Dominicans, but those who were never enrolled in the civil registry must do so through the Foreigners Regularization Plan.