SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Dominican immigration officers have barred a woman of Haitian descent who's fighting for Dominican citizenship from flying to the U.S. to meet with a human rights body.
A legal challenge by Juliana Deguis Pierre resulted in a Dominican constitutional court ruling last year that could let the government retroactively strip citizenship mostly from people of Haitian descent born in the Dominican Republic.
Pierre went to Santo Domingo's airport Sunday with lawyers headed for a U.S. meeting of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which will discuss the citizenship issue at a Monday meeting in Washington.
Pierre showed immigration officers a special document provided to her by the U.S. State Department. But the Dominican officers decided it was not sufficient to allow her to travel on an international flight and said she needs a passport.
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