A ruling last year by the highest court of the Dominican Republic strips anyone born in the country from their Dominican citizenship if their parents were undocumented. What’s more, the court order applies retroactively to people born in the country since 1929. The Dominican government says they are working to regularize the immigration status of those affected, mostly of Haitian descent. Meanwhile, human rights activists argue that the country is trampling on the basic rights of thousands of people who will be disenfranchised and barred from schools and other public services. This controversial policy brings to mind the calls by conservatives in the U.S. to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. of undocumented parents. This is a debate on the issue.
Guests: Aníbal de Castro, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic in the United States, Washington, DC, http://www.domrep.org/; Miguel López Rodríguez, President, Comité Político Latinoamericano (COPOLA USA), New York, NY.
For more information about Linea Abierta click here
To visit Linea Abierta audio archives go to archivosderb.org
