Deadline Looms For Haitians In The Dominican Republic

06:10

June 16, 2015

Haitian sugar cane workers rally in front of the Haitian embassy demanding the Haitian passports needed to regularize their migration status in the Dominican Republic, in Santo Domingo on June 1, 2015. (Erika Santelices/AFP/Getty Images)

The Dominican government says that after 7 p.m. tomorrow, anyone who can't show papers proving they're in the country legally will be subject to expulsion. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians and people of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic have been scrambling to abide.

The deportation threat has sparked international protests, including a "Black Lives Matter in the Dominican Republic" rally in New York yesterday. Part of the outrage stems from concern that the deportees will include people born in the country, who had once believed they were Dominican citizens.

Cassandre Theano of the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York discusses the situation with Here & Now's Robin Young.

Guest

Cassandre Theano, associate legal officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York.

This segment aired on June 16, 2015.

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