[JURIST] Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina [official website, in Spanish] announced Friday that the country had certified the citizenship of thousands whose status had been in question for almost a decade. Their citizenship was in question [AP report] based on their Haitan-immigrant-parents illegal entry into the country. As a result, they had had trouble enrolling in school, travelling, getting formal work, marrying or registering children for lack of residence documents. Despite the announcement, even more immigrants [Miami Herald report] are at risk of deportation under undocumented immigrant crackdowns.

Immigration issues in the Dominican Republic have been a topic of controversy for years. In October 2013, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] called upon [JURIST Report] the Dominican Republic reject a constitutional court ruling that would impact the nationality of Dominicans of foreign descent. A group of Caribbean nations also condemned [AP report] the court’s ruling. Dominicans of Haitian descent [Open Society backgrounder] have historically experience discrimination in the Dominican Republic. AI detailed these practices in a report [text] in July 2010. The report specifically cites the issue of identity documents as the cause of the abuse. The ruling was issued [AP report] in September.