The court ruling applies to anyone whose family arrived in the country after 1929 and can't document their status. Being born in the Dominican Republic doesn't make a difference.
Some are calling it the latest manifestation of "anti-Haitianismo" in the Dominican Republic. Both countries are on the same island of Hispaniola.
Haitians are different from their Dominican neighbors in several ways. Firstly, language: most Dominicans speak Spanish, while most Haitians speak Creole, based on French. Then, there's the issue of race.
Haiti is overwhelmingly black; whereas Dominicans identify more with the European part of their heritage, rather than the African part. Most Americans would describe most Dominicans as black. And DNA tests taken over the last decade confirm that most Dominicans have black ancestry in their family history to varying degrees.
Their relations are a story of race, identity, and money. The Dominican Republic is not a rich country, but it's a lot better off than its neighbor, Haiti. Tens of thousands of people in the Dominican Republic are being stripped of their citizenship, on the grounds that they or their ancestors were illegal immigrants. Thousands have already been deported across the border to Haiti, because it is assumed all illegal migrants come from there.www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTXeZvpzcpw Cached
Elizabeth Bayard the Haitian queen