Dominican Republic registers hundreds of illegal aliens in 2nd day of push

Santo Domingo.- Hundreds of foreigners made long lines since early Tuesday at the governors’ offices of 12 provinces to register for the program to regularize undocumented foreigners, contrary to the first day’s low attendance, and nearly 2,000 people enrolled since Monday.

On the first day just 500 citizens of various nationalities went to the sites to update their immigration status, but jumped to 1,406 on Tuesday.

Deputy Interior minister Washington Gonzalez last night said the registration in the National District starts Wednesday, in the Juan Pablo Duarte government office building, and in the rest of Greater Santo Domingo on Monday.

Most of the people signing up for the program are Haitian nationals who had crossed the border illegally as long as 10 years ago, and living illegally in the country since .

The regularization process however has been mired in glitches at the Central Electoral Board’s (JCE) informatics system that slowed down the registration, especially in San Cristobal (south).