Dominican Archbishop Héctor Rodríguez condemns US deportee agreement

Archbishop Héctor Rafael Rodríguez of the Santiago archdiocese warned that the Dominican Republic’s deal to receive people deported from the United States raises serious unanswered questions. He said officials have not clarified where the deportees will live, the conditions they will face, or how they will be integrated, and he warned the country could become a “human dump”.

Rodríguez criticised the lack of public transparency from the foreign ministry, noting the agreement would bring about 30 deportees each month for a year. He argued the arrangement could strain social stability, security and the nation’s sovereignty, stating that if the decision was imposed without consensus, Dominican sovereignty had been violated.