Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Excerpt
In 2008, Juliana Deguis, a Dominican of Haitian descent, went to the local state office to get her official ID card. To her surprise, the clerks refused to issue her an ID card alleging that her Dominican birth certificate was invalid and that she was instead a Haitian national. The state officers proceeded to seize Deguis's birth certificate, effectively leaving her undocumented. She sought redress through the courts, and her case led to a landmark legal decision that radically redefined Dominican citizenship, and left over 200,000 Haitian Dominicans in legal limbo as former citizens of the Dominican Republic. Since 2013, an estimated 70,000 to over 100,000 Haitian migrants and their children have left for Haiti under fear of deportation and harassment from Dominican authorities. Statelessness and a general disregard for their rights seem to characterize their plight, a situation exacerbated by calls from Dominican ultranationalist groups to rid the country of Haitians. As Deguis soberly put it: "I'm nobody in my own country."
Recommended Citation
Ernesto Sagas; Ediberto Roman, Who Belongs: Citizenship and Statelessness in the Dominican Republic, 9 Geo. J. L. & Mod. Critical Race Persp. 35, 56 (2017).
