DR to Haitians: “mi no Black like you”….. Puerto Rico to Dominicans: “get yall black ssa out our country!”
- Thread starter Ray D’Angelo Harris
- Start date
Rasille
(Rah.Zil.E)
Black people finding ways to look down on other black people.
Some beef is everlasting. I’m glad those motherfukkers getting a taste of their own medicine
Diaspora wars man even in the Caribbean is stupid
Ray D’Angelo Harris
Silky smooth
• More context:
The Associated Press
Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic get out of trucks in Carrizal, Dominican Republic, on the border with Haiti on Jan. 30.
Martin Adames/AP
BELLADERE, Haiti — A crowd of 500 descended from dusty trucks on a recent morning and shuffled through a tiny gap in a border gate separating Haiti from the Dominican Republic.
Under a broiling sun, the migrants recounted what they said were mounting abuses by Dominican officials after President Luis Abinader ordered them in October to start deporting at least 10,000 immigrants a week under a harsh new policy widely criticized by civil organizations.
"They broke down my door at 4 in the morning," said Odelyn St. Fleur, who had worked as a mason in the Dominican Republic for two decades. He had been sleeping next to his wife and 7-year-old son.
The number of alleged human rights violations ranging from unauthorized home raids to racial profiling to deporting breastfeeding mothers and unaccompanied minors is surging as officials ramp up deportations to Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
More than a quarter million people were deported last year, and more than 31,200 in January alone.
"The situation has reached a critical point," said Roudy Joseph, an activist who accused officials of ignoring due process during arrests. "Every day, children are left abandoned at schools."
Haitians line up at a non-profit help center to receive food after being deported from the Dominican Republic, in Belladere, Haiti
Haitian migrants share stories of abuse as Dominican Republic ramps up deportations
The Associated Press
Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic get out of trucks in Carrizal, Dominican Republic, on the border with Haiti on Jan. 30.
Martin Adames/AP
BELLADERE, Haiti — A crowd of 500 descended from dusty trucks on a recent morning and shuffled through a tiny gap in a border gate separating Haiti from the Dominican Republic.
They were the first deportees of the day, some still clad in work clothes and others barefoot as they lined up for food, water and medical care in the Haitian border city of Belladère before mulling their next move.Under a broiling sun, the migrants recounted what they said were mounting abuses by Dominican officials after President Luis Abinader ordered them in October to start deporting at least 10,000 immigrants a week under a harsh new policy widely criticized by civil organizations.
"They broke down my door at 4 in the morning," said Odelyn St. Fleur, who had worked as a mason in the Dominican Republic for two decades. He had been sleeping next to his wife and 7-year-old son.
The number of alleged human rights violations ranging from unauthorized home raids to racial profiling to deporting breastfeeding mothers and unaccompanied minors is surging as officials ramp up deportations to Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
More than a quarter million people were deported last year, and more than 31,200 in January alone.
"The situation has reached a critical point," said Roudy Joseph, an activist who accused officials of ignoring due process during arrests. "Every day, children are left abandoned at schools."
Haitians line up at a non-profit help center to receive food after being deported from the Dominican Republic, in Belladere, Haiti
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Ray D’Angelo Harris
Silky smooth
Cont.
The men tried to sell them jeans, water, SIM cards and illegal trips back to the Dominican Republic: "Would you like to pass through? I'll wait for you on the other side," they whispered in Creole.
Despite the crackdown, many re-enter the Dominican Republic, exposing a broken system.
That afternoon marked the second time Jimmy Milien, a 32-year-old floor installer, was deported. He was arrested in the capital, Santo Domingo, in 2024 and again in mid-January when authorities boarded a public bus and pointed at him.
"Damn devil Haitian, get off," he recalled them saying before they even asked for documents.
He left behind his wife and two children, ages 3 and 12, and doesn't know when he'll see them again.
He was planning to travel to Haiti's capital, but like thousands of others dropped off in Belladère, he would have to cross through gang territory where gunmen open fire on public transport.
"There's no food, there's nothing, only criminals," he said of Haiti, where more than 5,600 people were reported killed last year, the majority by gangs that control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
If Milien were to return a third time to the Dominican Republic, dozens of smugglers await.
Mack, a Haitian who only gave his first name to speak freely about smuggling, said he ferries migrants across the border up to six times a week.
He charges $3 per person, and then offers $8 to Dominican border guards: "If you pay them, they will let you through," he said.
He lived almost three years in Santo Domingo, installing drywall until he got deported. He then joined a thriving smuggling operation and said he doesn't plan on returning to the capital until the crackdown eases.
"Here, everyone knows me," he said. "They don't bother me."
Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic get out of trucks in Carrizal, Dominican Republic, on the border with Haiti
The influx of Haitian migrants and their attempts to re-enter illegally is something that vexes Vice Admiral Luis Rafael Lee Ballester, Dominican migration director.
"The Dominican Republic…has taken too much responsibility for the situation in Haiti," he said. "We are willing to provide support, but it's important that Haiti's leaders instill order in their country, that they look after their people."
Dominican officials argue that Haitian immigrants have overburdened the country's public services, with more than 80,000 new Haitian students enrolled in public schools in the past four years. Health officials say Haitian women account for up to 70% of births in the country, costing the government millions of dollars.
Ballester said he will deploy additional migration officials across the country to tackle what he described as a surge in undocumented immigrants, saying they're a burden and a danger to his country.
While he denied abuse allegations, he acknowledged officials are allowed to enter homes "during a hot pursuit" and that personnel are being retrained "because our commitment to respecting human rights is unquestionable."
Ballester said the Dominican Republic does not deport unaccompanied minors and that officials now separate women and children from men during deportations.
But in late January, five teenagers without their parents were deported. Among them was Jovenson Morette, 15, who said he was detained while working in a field.
He and the four others were interviewed by Haitian officials in Belladère who were trying to track down their parents.
Further north, in the Haitian border town of Ouanaminthe, a 10-year-old unaccompanied girl was deported in late January, said Geeta Narayan, UNICEF's representative in Haiti.
"These children are amongst the most vulnerable," she said, noting that gangs along the border prey on them.
Last year, the Dominican Republic deported 1,099 unaccompanied children; 786 of them were reunited with their families, according to UNICEF.
Josette Jean, 45, feared for her 16-year-old son, who was born in the Dominican Republic, when he was recently deported alone to Haiti.
Clutching a picture of him, she said she rushed to the Dominican detention center where he was being held but was told the government doesn't deport unaccompanied minors. He was deported anyway.
Jean paid a smuggler to bring her son back to the Dominican Republic days later.
"Children who are born here have no idea where to go," she said of those deported to Haiti, a country her son had never visited.
A significant number of those deported, like Jean's son, were born in the Dominican Republic but lack birth certificates or other official documentation proving their legal status, with activists accusing the government of allowing work permits to expire or refusing to process their paperwork. The Dominican Republic does not automatically bestow citizenship to everyone born there.
Continue reading here: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5292955/haiti-dominican-republic-migrants-deportations
'I'll wait for you on the other side'
On a recent afternoon, dozens of vendors lined up on either side of the men, women and unaccompanied children who marched single file into Belladère after being deported, their feet sinking into a muddy, garbage-strewn trail that smelled of urine.The men tried to sell them jeans, water, SIM cards and illegal trips back to the Dominican Republic: "Would you like to pass through? I'll wait for you on the other side," they whispered in Creole.
Despite the crackdown, many re-enter the Dominican Republic, exposing a broken system.
That afternoon marked the second time Jimmy Milien, a 32-year-old floor installer, was deported. He was arrested in the capital, Santo Domingo, in 2024 and again in mid-January when authorities boarded a public bus and pointed at him.
"Damn devil Haitian, get off," he recalled them saying before they even asked for documents.
He left behind his wife and two children, ages 3 and 12, and doesn't know when he'll see them again.
He was planning to travel to Haiti's capital, but like thousands of others dropped off in Belladère, he would have to cross through gang territory where gunmen open fire on public transport.
"There's no food, there's nothing, only criminals," he said of Haiti, where more than 5,600 people were reported killed last year, the majority by gangs that control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
If Milien were to return a third time to the Dominican Republic, dozens of smugglers await.
Mack, a Haitian who only gave his first name to speak freely about smuggling, said he ferries migrants across the border up to six times a week.
He charges $3 per person, and then offers $8 to Dominican border guards: "If you pay them, they will let you through," he said.
He lived almost three years in Santo Domingo, installing drywall until he got deported. He then joined a thriving smuggling operation and said he doesn't plan on returning to the capital until the crackdown eases.
"Here, everyone knows me," he said. "They don't bother me."
Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic get out of trucks in Carrizal, Dominican Republic, on the border with Haiti
Young and alone at the border
Military checkpoints dot the road leading out of the dusty border to the Dominican capital. Authorities board buses, stick their heads into car windows and detain suspected undocumented migrants, but many jump out before a checkpoint and hop on again further down the road.The influx of Haitian migrants and their attempts to re-enter illegally is something that vexes Vice Admiral Luis Rafael Lee Ballester, Dominican migration director.
"The Dominican Republic…has taken too much responsibility for the situation in Haiti," he said. "We are willing to provide support, but it's important that Haiti's leaders instill order in their country, that they look after their people."
Dominican officials argue that Haitian immigrants have overburdened the country's public services, with more than 80,000 new Haitian students enrolled in public schools in the past four years. Health officials say Haitian women account for up to 70% of births in the country, costing the government millions of dollars.
Ballester said he will deploy additional migration officials across the country to tackle what he described as a surge in undocumented immigrants, saying they're a burden and a danger to his country.
While he denied abuse allegations, he acknowledged officials are allowed to enter homes "during a hot pursuit" and that personnel are being retrained "because our commitment to respecting human rights is unquestionable."
Ballester said the Dominican Republic does not deport unaccompanied minors and that officials now separate women and children from men during deportations.
But in late January, five teenagers without their parents were deported. Among them was Jovenson Morette, 15, who said he was detained while working in a field.
He and the four others were interviewed by Haitian officials in Belladère who were trying to track down their parents.
Further north, in the Haitian border town of Ouanaminthe, a 10-year-old unaccompanied girl was deported in late January, said Geeta Narayan, UNICEF's representative in Haiti.
"These children are amongst the most vulnerable," she said, noting that gangs along the border prey on them.
Last year, the Dominican Republic deported 1,099 unaccompanied children; 786 of them were reunited with their families, according to UNICEF.
Josette Jean, 45, feared for her 16-year-old son, who was born in the Dominican Republic, when he was recently deported alone to Haiti.
Clutching a picture of him, she said she rushed to the Dominican detention center where he was being held but was told the government doesn't deport unaccompanied minors. He was deported anyway.
Jean paid a smuggler to bring her son back to the Dominican Republic days later.
"Children who are born here have no idea where to go," she said of those deported to Haiti, a country her son had never visited.
A significant number of those deported, like Jean's son, were born in the Dominican Republic but lack birth certificates or other official documentation proving their legal status, with activists accusing the government of allowing work permits to expire or refusing to process their paperwork. The Dominican Republic does not automatically bestow citizenship to everyone born there.
Continue reading here: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5292955/haiti-dominican-republic-migrants-deportations
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Ray D’Angelo Harris
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In Puerto Rico, immigration arrests raise concerns about racial profiling
JUNE 6, 20255:31 PM ETHEARD ON ALL THINGS CONSIDERED
Adrian Florido
5-Minute Listen
TRANSCRIPT
Recent ICE raids in Puerto Rico have mostly rounded up Dominican immigrants. The island is now reckoning with the role that longstanding anti-Dominican racism and racial profiling may be playing.
In Puerto Rico, recent ICE raids have mostly rounded up immigrants from the island next door, the Dominican Republic. Dominicans have long lived in Puerto Rican communities but are often not citizens. The arrests are part of President Trump's mass deportation campaign, and they're forcing Puerto Ricans who are U.S. citizens to confront the prejudice their Dominican neighbors often face. NPR's Adrian Florido reports from San Juan.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Standing in front of her house in San Juan's biggest Dominican neighborhood, Dolores Espiritusanto says, she is now always on the lookout for ICE agents.
DOLORES ESPIRITUSANTO: (Non-English language spoken).
FLORIDO: "You think there's just a few?" She asks. "There's a lot of them." She is from the Dominican Republic. She's dark-skinned, but she says, it's not her color and features alone that make people assume she's not from here. There are many Black Puerto Ricans. She says, it's her features along with her accent.
ESPIRITUSANTO: (Non-English language spoken).
FLORIDO: "I've lived in Puerto Rico so many years," she says, "but I still say things like a Dominican does." Like...
ESPIRITUSANTO: (Non-English language spoken, laughter).
FLORIDO: "When I speak is when people know I'm not Puerto Rican," she says. And she says that is the problem right now. She worries an ICE agent will see her, hear her and ask for her papers.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL CLANKING)
FLORIDO: She goes to her car parked on the street and grabs a sheet of paper off the passenger's seat.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER RUSTLING)
ESPIRITUSANTO: (Non-English language spoken).
FLORIDO: "If I show them this, they have no right to take me," she says. It's a copy of her U.S. passport card.
ESPIRITUSANTO: Americano.
FLORIDO: Espiritucanto became a citizen years ago. But she knows that if an immigration agent stops her, he might not believe she's here legally.
ESPIRITUSANTO: (Non-English language spoken).
FLORIDO: "When they stop you, you get nervous," she says, "even if you are legal."
ICE says it's made about 500 immigration arrests in Puerto Rico since Donald Trump returned to power. Seventy-five percent of them have been Dominican nationals. They've been detained at workplace raids but also when ICE agents roll into neighborhoods looking for people. Dominicans fear their dark skin and distinctive Spanish accent are making them easy targets. Jose Rodriguez leads the Dominican Human Rights Committee, a local advocacy group.
JOSE RODRIGUEZ: Eighty percent of Dominicans is Black. You know, that's why they go to the profiling, the racial profiling against these people, because they're Black.
FLORIDO: He's been monitoring ICE operations in Dominican neighborhoods and says, a pattern is becoming clear. Agents have approached groups of Black people gathered on the street, heard their accents and asked for papers. Some with legal status have been arrested because they weren't carrying their green cards and only later were released. ICE has acknowledged this.
RODRIGUEZ: (Non-English language spoken).
FLORIDO: Rodriguez says, there's only one reason legal residents doing nothing wrong are being detained on suspicion of being in the country illegally - because they're being profiled.
REBECCA GONZALEZ-RAMOS: I don't agree with that at all. That would be very irresponsible of us, to intervene with individuals just because they have a Dominican accent.
FLORIDO: Rebecca Gonzalez-Ramos is a top ICE official in Puerto Rico. She runs its investigations office, known as HSI. She acknowledges her agents are approaching people on the street. She says they're often looking for a specific person with a deportation order but will question others and ask for their papers. She denies, though, that they are racially profiling.
GONZALEZ-RAMOS: Especially here in Puerto Rico, we are of all colors. So moving on accents and moving on people's color, you know, it's - first of all, it's illegal, and second of all, it's not the way HSI does business. We work based on intelligence and executing either arrest warrants or final orders of deportation.
FLORIDO: She says the vast majority picked up so far have been Dominican because they're the island's largest foreign-born population. But the recent raids in Puerto Rico have forced both Dominicans and Puerto Ricans to confront an uncomfortable truth.
NILKA MARRERO: You see me with the white skin?
FLORIDO: Nilka Marrero is pastor of a church that serves the Dominican neighborhood of Barrio Obrero. She's Puerto Rican, blue eyes, blond hair.
MARRERO: I walk around the barrio. I have never been detained. No one even looks at me.
FLORIDO: Dominicans have always faced racial prejudice in Puerto Rico, she says. But over the years, they've found greater acceptance. The raids have been a reminder they still don't fully belong.
MARRERO: You're Black, you walk as a Dominican man or you look like one, I'm going to snatch you.
FLORIDO: It's forcing tough conversations with her Dominican congregants.
MARRERO: I've told them to try to mask, try to speak Spanish Puerto Rican, not Dominican, try to disguise themselves a little so they can pass unseen.
FLORIDO: Do you have to braid your hair that way, she asks them? When you run to the store, do you have to wear that head wrap? She hates suggesting they hide the markers of their nationality, but she says, I just don't want them to get arrested. Adrian Florido, NPR News, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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