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Santo Domingo.- The General Directorate of Immigration (DGM) has announced that it will impose economic sanctions on businesses that hire undocumented foreign workers, as part of efforts to combat illegal immigration and reinforce labor laws in the Dominican Republic.
According to the DGM’s Legal Department, the penalties are based on Article 132 of Migration Law No. 285-04, which allows fines ranging from five to thirty public-sector minimum wages, depending on the number of undocumented employees found during inspections.
This announcement follows recent raids in Greater Santo Domingo, where 92 Haitian nationals with irregular immigration status were detained. The DGM stated that such operations will expand nationwide in response to widespread reports of unauthorized foreign labor, which often result in labor rights violations and tax evasion.
These enforcement efforts are part of a broader strategy to combat informal immigration, human trafficking, and threats to national security, carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense and other state agencies.
In 2025, the public-sector minimum wage in the Dominican Republic will be RD$18,871 per month, effective June 1st. 2026. This means the current minimum public-sector salary is RD$ 16,607 per month since the 12% increase has not been applied yet. That means the penalty currently would be around USD$ 1,410 Minimum to USD$ 8,464 Maximum, with a future raise to around USD$ 1,603 Minimum and USD$ 9,618 Maximum depending on the dollar exchange rate. This makes the penalty a price of doing business for the rich, which will make the measure ineffective in dealing with this illegal, cheap labor crisis that is destroying the working class. We need a 15-25% yearly profit penalty to make the choice hard for these businesses that partake in these illegal activities, so we can get this crisis under control. If you hurt the wallet, the business will react. They won’t risk 15-25% of profit for some pennies in savings on cheap illegal labor.
Are there fines for individual property owners who hire Haitians?