Economic sectors snub Dominican Republic’s push to regularize aliens

Santo Domingo.- The low number of people who’ve applied for the National Foreigners Regularization Plan on Monday prompted Interior and Police Minister José Ramón Fadul to propose issuing of a two-year, non-resident visa, and reveal sectors’ “refusal” to cooperate in the process.

He said after that status, beneficiaries can opt for immigrant category.

Fadul said as of last Friday only 123,045 foreigners have sought to benefit from any of the Plan’s immigration status, and just 5,345 have applied under Law 169-14, enacted for people born in Dominican territory but illegally registered.

The low turnout, the official says, results from what he affirms is the refusal by most of the country’s economic sectors to provide employment certifications to Haitians, and refuse to help in the regularization process. He didn’t name any specific sector.

"A non-resident visa, that’s our proposal that we’ll discuss even with the Foreign Ministry and other institutions so that at that time the Dominican population has a concept of the importance of regularizing people in the country not only Haitians, so they can have an immigration status and can freely exercise their activities," the official said, interviewed on Color Vision Channel 9,

Fadul warned that the deadline to file for the Naturalization Law 169-14 which expires later this month will not be extended.

The Senate had approved a 90-day extension to the Law’s deadline in October.