United States President-elect Donald Trump has threatened mass deportations of undocumented migrants once his second term begins.
As he prepares to fulfil his campaign promise, it’s important to understand how these types of mass deportations are carried out. The Dominican Republic (DR) offers a cautionary tale.
A white man with thinning grey hair stands behind a United Nations lectern.
Dominican Republic President Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Since the beginning of October 2024, Dominican President Luis Abinader Corona has committed to deporting 10,000 Haitians a week. The Organization of International Migration registered 27,000 Haitians had been deported from the DR by the end of October, reaching 40,000 by Nov. 18.
Haitians represent the largest migrant community in the DR because Haiti and the DR share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
According to the latest Dominican National Survey of Immigration conducted in 2017, 497,825 Haitian migrants live in the DR, representing 4.9 per cent of the total population. Assuming that these numbers haven’t changed drastically, 40,000 deportations amount to a significant proportion of the Haitian population in the DR.
The deportations
During my research visit of July 2024, it was clear that the Dominican army, police and migration officers had been given deportation targets long before the president’s October announcement. Read More
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