Somos Dominicanos Como Tú

Dominican Republic

2014-2019

In 2013, the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court voted to invalidate birthright citizenship for children born to foreign parents going back to 1929. The decision effectively stripped Dominican nationality from an estimated 200,000 people, most of Haitian descent, and created the largest stateless population in the Western hemisphere.

In October 2024, as gang violence in neighboring Haiti reached unprecedented levels, the Dominican government announced a new initiative to deport 10,000 people per week, citing high numbers of Haitian migrants fleeing violence across the border. Thousands of people are arrested every week, as immigration officials look to fill their quotas. For many people sent to the border, this is their first time in Haiti.

This photo series focuses on daily life in a small batey in the country’s southwest. Bateys are small communities built around sugarcane fields and historically, where Dominicans of Haitian descent live. They are among the poorest and most marginalized areas in the Caribbean and the people living here have faced the brunt of these government decisions.