Citizenship - Haiti Observer Blog

President Donald Trump wants to challange a 150 yera old constitutional standard that states anyone born in the United states is a United State citizen

Trump claims that he can end birthright citizenship with an executive order. He wants to sign an executive order that removes the rights to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on US soil.

The 14th Amandment states: " all persons born or naturalized in the United states and jubject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside"

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Trump's Proposed Immigration Plan could Cost up to $600 Billion

The international community has looked upon the Dominican Republic's (DR) immigration policy with disfavor. It has been deporting Haitian immigrants and their Dominican-born children, sending them to neighboring Haiti. The DR Supreme Court ruled in 2013 children of non-Dominican parentage, residing in the DR between 1929 and 2010, claim no residency rights and should be deported. The majority of non-Dominicans in the DR are Haitian.

The DR's actions have become a campaign topic for the U.S. Republican Party. Its presidential candidates want to re-amend the Constitution's 14th Amendment to strip the progeny of immigrants to the U.S. of citizenship. In particular, Republicans want immigrant women, who have given birth to babies on U.S. soil, to be deported.

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As per news report dated August 21, 2015, with the start of repatriations of undocumented aliens under the National Regularization Plan (PNR) by the Dominican Government since Saturday, August 15, the Haitian Foreign Minister Lener Renauld on Wednesday (August 19) has said that simply deporting some people living in the D.R, illegally with undocumented status, does not warrant Haitian authority to accept them as their compatriots. Without adherence to the protocol established between the two States earlier in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of American States (OAS), Haiti cannot accept or receive persons at risk of statelessness in its territory. We may recall that Haiti and Dominican Republic had signed a "Memorandum of understanding on the mechanisms of repatriation between the Dominican Republic and Haiti" on December 2, 1999.

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As U.S. immigration reform stalls because of Republicans' refusal to compromise, the onslaught of foreign nationals continues to stream in, seeking green cards and eventually citizenship.

The Caribbean region makes up 15% of immigrants in the U.S., who have attained green cards or naturalization. The four top Caribbean countries, who achieved green card or naturalization status, include Dominican Republic (DR), Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica. The total number of immigrants from all UN countries, who naturalized in 2012 exceeded 100,000.

As U.S. naturalized citizens, they gain the right to work at any job, including government posts through the electoral process, the one exclusion being the U.S. presidency. They also have voting rights at all levels of the government electoral process.

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Mezanmi, Ayisyen se yon ti pep ki pale anpil oui. Depi lotrejou, anpil Ayisyen ap kouri bri di Premye minis Ayisyen-an, Laurent Lamothe, pa Ayisyen; min plito se yon Chilyen

One thing I know about my people is that we Haitian talk about everything and anything. Sometime, we even talk about things that do not exist.

The last commotion has to do with the nationality of the Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe. Now there is a rumor letting people know that he does not have Haitian nationality. Some people are suggesting that he is of Chilean nationality instead

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In a recent judgment by Dominican court On September 26, 2013, a decision has been taken to strip the Dominican citizenship of Haitians who were born on Dominican soil after 1929. This awesome category even deprives the right of the citizenship to the descendents of the Haitians who were brought in almost 100 years ago to work on farms.

The Dominican court has reasoned that those Haitian farm workers were "in transit". So it is quite natural that their children are not entitled to automatic citizenship. Prior to the constitutional revisions of 2010, the government had been regularly granting citizenship automatically to any individual born within its borders even to the children of the parent who was "in transit" for a period more than 10 days. In 2007, the Electoral Council of the country, officially announced denial of citizenship to children born to illegal migrants. This decision of Dominican court that left thousands of people stateless may cause a human rights crisis.

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Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR) have shared the island of Hispaniola for over 300 years. The relationship between them has been fraught by intermittent periods of violence and stress. Another cycle of conflict is beginning with the DR Constitutional Court's ruling migrated Haitians born on Dominican soil are no longer citizens, unless one of the parents is of Dominican ethnicity.

Haitians affected by the Dominican Republic Ruling include anyone born after 1929. This discriminates against Haitians brought to the DR to provide farm labor. The paradox created makes Haitian descendants of migrants, not only non-citizens of the DR, but also of Haiti.

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The latest scandal in the Haitian Parliament concerns the citizenship status of now-resigned Minister of the Diaspora (MOD), Bernice Fidélia. Ms. Fidélia recently submitted her resignation letter to Prime Minister Lamothe, and he has been reluctant to make public that document. His office gave a terse statement to the press that omitted the reasons she resigned.

Senate member John Joel Joseph claimed at a meeting of Parliament and the Prime Minister on June 4th that Ms. Fidélia is an American citizen. Within days of that meeting, she tendered her resignation in a letter to Lamothe. Since then, more senators believe Joseph's claims, or else why her sudden leave-taking?

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According to the Communication Office of the Haitian Prime Minister, Bernice Phidelia, the Minister of Haitians living abroad, gave her resignation, Monday, June 10, 2013 to Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Religious Affairs, Pierre Richard Casimir will be assuming this function until further notice.

In less than six Months on the job, the Minister of Haitians Living Abroad, Bernice Phidelia had to call it a quit. She had taken office on 25 January 2013, following another cabinet reshuffle where she replace Mr. Daniel Supplice.

Bernice Phidelia left her position after accusations have been mounting against her that she nationality other than Haitian. According to Senator John Joel Joseph, she has dual nationality.

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The most important news coming out of Haiti for he past few weeks has been allegation that president Michel Martelly is not only Haitian. According to Senator Moise Jean Charles, The Haitian President has been lying about his citizenship. Moise told everyone that he has proof that our beloved President Martelly holds both American and Italian citizenship and consequently not qualified to be the President of Haiti.

Senator Joseph Lambert confirmed yesterday that two members of the Government cabinet so far have been found to be of foreign nationality. The Commission responsible to investigate the matter plans to travel outside of the country to Washington DC as well as to many other countries to verify the nationality of President Michel Martelly.

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