Law that recognizes citizenship to descendant of irregular migrants approved by Congress

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - In Brief 22 May 2014 by Pavel Isa

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After months of heated national debate and stiff pressure from the international community, last week President Medina submitted to Congress a bill aimed at recognizing citizenship to descendent of migrants born in the country who were properly registered in the Civil Registry and hold birth certificates. The bill also set a process for those who haven’t being registered to apply for citizenship through naturalization. First they would have to register as foreigners. The bill was unanimously approved by both chambers and came in response to a ruling by the Constitutional Court which stripped citizenship to descendant of irregular migrants born in Dominican soil based on an extremely controversial interpretation of the constitutions in force before 2010 which made undocumented migrants equivalent to foreigners in transit. The latter do not have the right to be citizens by birth. The ruling was extremely controversial, divided the country and was widely rejected by the international community since nationality is a human right. Many considered the ruling discriminatory against descendant of Haitian inmigrants since they are the overwhleming majority of the affected. The law received support from all sides, even from the both extremes in the spectrum of the debate, in spite of the fact that it does not fully please everyone. Many said that “It is what it was politically possible”. The bill has been commended by international organizations as a “first step” to fully restore the rights of those affected. The bill will be signed by the President in the next few days and it is likely to release the enormous pressure the country was under due to the ruling.