Violence flares over Haitian immigration

There has been a recent escalation of violence in the Dominican Republic regarding migrants from neighboring Haiti. The latest incident involved police clashing with Haitian nationals in northwestern Dominican Republic after officials destroyed vegetable plots grown on private land. The confrontations were worse after three Haitians were arrested for killing a Dominican farmer.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti are two of the poorest countries in the Americas though tens of thousands of Haitian migrations have crossed the border in recent years seeking cheap, basic labor. The increased influx in migrants has led to mass deportations of Haitians and numerous confrontations between nationals of both countries.

In the U.S., meanwhile, the Haitian community continues to call for a fairer immigration policy. Despite resumed deportations and rejected requests for the granting of temporary protected status, some Haitian activists continue to hope that change will be forthcoming:

Supporters of temporary protected status for Haitians say that Haiti is in no condition to absorb tens of thousands of deportees, and that its recovery may depend, at least in part, on a continuing flow of remittances sent home by illegal Haitian immigrants in the United States. Those remittances totaled $1.87 billion last year, according to estimates by the Inter-American Development Bank…

Others complain that while temporary protections for immigrants can sometimes be justified, the government has been too liberal in extending the time frames. Temporary protected status “should be used just to stop the flow back home for a relatively short period of time until a country gets back somewhat to where normal was before the emergency,” said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, a public policy group that seeks to reduce immigration.

Image- Miami Herald
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, LAHT, IPS, Dominican Today, New York Times