SR0802 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0802 LRB099 13234 GRL 37139 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Generations of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic have experienced systematic discrimination and inhumane treatment, including being trafficked into the country to perform back-breaking labor in its sugarcane fields for little or no compensation in a system that has been characterized as modern-day slavery; the Dominican Republic's Haitian population has also faced escalating threats to its safety this year through anti-Haitian protests and violence, including the lynching of a Haitian man in a public park; and

WHEREAS, Throughout this shameful history, during which many Dominicans and the Dominican Republic as a whole have benefitted economically from the low cost labor of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent, the establishment of barriers to legal Dominican citizenship for Haitian migrants and their children, even those born in the Dominican Republic, has remained a constant; in 2010, an amendment to the Dominican Constitution removed its birthright citizenship provision and instantaneously denationalized hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent born to immigrants subsequent to 1929; and

WHEREAS, In 2013, the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic applied this amendment retroactively, effectively revoking the citizenship of people born in the Dominican Republic to noncitizens; subsequent to this decision, the government of the Dominican Republic required all migrants and non-citizens to prove that they arrived in the country prior to October of 2011 and to either have a job or be attending school or else face deportation; and

WHEREAS, By the government's deadline on June 17, 2015, many men, women, and children of Haitian descent had been unable to register to remain in the country because of a lack of access to formal documentation of their place of birth, date of arrival in the Dominican Republic, work status, or other required information; although the deadline has been extended, an estimated 40,000 persons, fearing sudden deportation, separation from family members, and the loss of their belongings, have already left the Dominican Republic for Haiti, where many lack employment and housing and where the sudden population increase is contributing to the lingering humanitarian crisis in that nation; and

WHEREAS, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that more than 200,000 of those affected by the actions of the Dominican government are now not legally citizens of either Haiti or the Dominican Republic and are thus relegated to statelessness, putting the Dominican Republic in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which the Dominican Republic and the United States are signatories and which states, "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality"; and

WHEREAS, In 2005, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the government of the Dominican Republic to issue birth certificates to all Dominican-born children, since residents without birth certificates cannot legally attend public school, marry, own property, or vote; however, the Dominican Republic has failed to comply with this ruling and has declared itself no longer subject to the jurisdiction of the court; and

WHEREAS, Hundreds of thousands of residents of the Dominican Republic are still at risk of deportation at a moment's notice; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the government of the United States to bring pressure to bear on the Dominican Republic, using means including sanctions, travel bans, or other tools that leverage the Dominican government's dependence on foreign trade and tourism, to immediately halt any and all discriminatory deportations of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic and Dominicans of Haitian descent, comply with international law, and treat all of its residents fairly and humanely, regardless of color, national origin, migration status, or native language; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to President Barack Obama, the members of the Illinois congressional delegation, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Ambassador Samantha Power.