An Alaskan Reader Reports That The Dominican Republic Is Cracking Down On Birthright Citizenship
12/22/2013
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From: Ryan Kennedy [e-mail him]

Dominican Republic repeals birthright citizenship and it's retroactive.  US-born Dominicans protest because of the precedent it sets. This is remarkable on several levels.

Diaspora Sounds Alarm As Dominicans Face Statelessness

by Dana Farrington, NPR’s Code Switch Blog

December 20, 201310:16 AM

Politicians in the Dominican Republic have long courted Dominicans in the U.S. for votes. That relationship has strengthened in the past couple of years; in 2011, the Dominican government for its communities abroad.

And that influence means activism in the U.S. matters back on the island.

Writers in the U.S. took notice when the Dominican Republic made that retroactively revokes citizenship for thousands living in the country. Those born in the Dominican Republic since 1929 could lose citizenship if they don't have at least one Dominican parent. The ruling has the potential to upend the lives of thousands, mostly people of Haitian descent.[ More]

See previous letters from Ryan Kennedy.

James Fulford writes: It is remarkable. It turns out that there are 1.4 million people from the Dominican living in the United States, 220, 000 of those registered to vote in the Dominican. They actually have seats in their Chamber of Deputies representing New York.

Do any of these people also have American citizenship, which means they shouldn’t be voting in a foreign election? I don’t know and the MSM isn’t asking.

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