Top official doesn’t say ‘d’ word as foreigners’ repatriations set to start in June

Santo Domingo.- Interior and Police minister José Ramón Fadul warned Sunday that the country is ready to start enforcing the Migration Act as of June 16, as established by president Danilo Medina.

Although Fadul didn’t mention the term deportations, the official stressed there’ll be no extension of the deadline of the requirements for all foreigners to regularize their immigration status.

He said thus far 181,343 foreigners have registered with the National Regularization Plan and Law 169-14, which stipulates a special formula to register for naturalization those Dominicans born from undocumented aliens and, now total 7,860 offspring enrolled in group B, with 4,000 cases already processed.

Fadul called on all entities and organizations, employers, labor unions and NGOs which help foreigners without legal status to regularize their situation, to do so on time.

"I wouldn’t call repatriation, they will return to their home country," he said.

The official, when reminded that many will not leave voluntarily, said "Well, that’s not within the immigration laws, they’ll have to go to their country of origin, and to return to the country, would have to come through the procedural mechanisms of our immigration law."

The National Plan to Regularize Foreigners began June last year in 12 offices of the governor across the country, at a cost of RD$1.0 billion.