The Dominican Republic will crack down harder on migrants as Haitians
flee violence
[April 08, 2025]
By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Dominican President Luis
Abinader has announced more than a dozen measures to crack down on
migrants who have entered the Dominican Republic illegally as people in
neighboring Haiti flee a surge in gang violence.
The measures that Abinader qualified as “painful but necessary” in a
speech Sunday include charging patients for hospital services and
sanctioning those who rent homes or commercial businesses to migrants
who lack proper documentation.
“The rights of Dominicans will not be displaced. Our identity will not
be diluted. Our generosity will not be exploited. Here, solidarity has
limits,” Abinader said.
He said that starting on April 21, hospital staff will be required to
ask patients for their identification, work permit and proof of
residence.
If a patient is unable to present any of those documents, they will
receive medical attention and then be deported immediately, Abinader
said, adding that a migration agent will be stationed at every hospital
to ensure compliance.
The government also will deploy an additional 1,500 soldiers to the
border that the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti on the island of
Hispaniola, boosting the total number of personnel stationed there to
11,000, Abinader said.
He also announced that he would speed up construction of an additional 8
miles (13 kilometers) of border wall to add to the 34 miles (54
kilometers) already built.
“I recognize that many are concerned about the threat Haiti poses,"
Abinader said. “Concerned about the irregular migration it causes.
Concerned about the burden this places on our hospitals, our schools,
the risks to our security, and the strain on our economy.”
Roudy Joseph, a human-rights activist, said he wasn't surprised by the
announced measures because Abinader's administration was already
informally implementing some of them. He called the deployment of
migration agents to hospitals “a message of terror to the Haitian
community.”
“We already have cases where people are suffering from health problems
and are not going to the hospital," he said.
Joseph accused the government of being racist and xenophobic against the
Haitian community in the Dominican Republic, saying it was sympathizing
with an ultranationalist movement.
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Angelo Vasquez, center, the leader of the Antigua Orden Dominicana
nationalist group speaks to supporters during a march against
immigration at a Haitian settlement called "El Hoyo de Friusa" in
Bavaro, Dominican Republic, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP
Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
Abinader's administration has deported more than 180,000 migrants
suspected of living in the country illegally since it announced in
October that it would deport 10,000 of them a week. Human rights
activists and dozens of those who have been deported have accused
the government of abuse, including breaking into homes without a
warrant to arrest people.
Abinader also announced that legislators would debate a new bill
calling for stricter penalties against those who help migrants cross
into the Dominican Republic illegally.
“The violence that is destroying Haiti will not cross over to the
Dominican Republic,” Abinader said.
The president added that he would try to have businesses hire only
Dominican workers in certain sectors.
“For far too long, agriculture and construction have depended on
illegal workers,” he said.
Abinader spoke a week after an ultranationalist movement organized a
protest in a Dominican community where many Haitians live to demand
that the government impose measures against illegal migration.
Members of the movement threatened to protest across the country if
their demands were not met.
Abinader’s announcement also comes as gangs in Haiti that control at
least 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, continue to attack
once-peaceful communities in a bid to control more territory.
Abinader called on the international community to “do their duty,”
noting that Haiti needs help and that the Dominican Republic “cannot
and should not bear the burden of a crisis that is not theirs.”
___
Associated Press reporter Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico,
contributed to this report.
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