Opinion: Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship should highlight crisis in Dominican Republic

When I wrote about Donald Trump earlier this summer, I cautioned outraged progressives in New York City to channel their anger towards a constructive outlet. Denouncing Trump’s hate speech might feel pretty satisfying, but it wasn’t accomplishing much.

Two months later, as Trump continues raining down incendiary rhetoric from his 24/7 cable news perch, even I have to admit it’s getting harder to keep my cool. He’s mocked women, blacks, Latinos and Asians with degrading comments that encourage his followers to view us as less than equal, or less than human.

But Trump’s Republican rivals have begun to echo his most dangerous ramblings. And it’s frightening how one pillar in Trump’s otherwise vague policy agenda – ending birthright citizenship – has spread like wildfire. Remember, this is the same Trump who played a central role in the racist smear campaign surrounding President Barack Obama’s country of origin, which soon took on a life of its own. But other than a few marginal supporters, like notoriously racist Iowa U.S. Rep. Steve King, the cause célèbre never had a champion with this big a megaphone.

Birthright citizenship isn’t going anywhere. But it’s still an ugly hypothetical to consider. Authorized by the 14th Amendment after the Civil War, birthright citizenship ensured that former black slaves were recognized as U.S. citizens. Today, immigrant communities’ ladder towards upward mobility would be broken without it, and this new caste system would be a dark cloud over New York and cities with strong immigrant populations. 

Democrats have been quick to attack this nightmare vision – and thank goodness. But the left’s credibility would be stronger if it had a bit more to say about the equivalent humanitarian crisis involving birthright citizenship occurring only 2,000 miles from U.S. soil.

If you’re not following the constitutional crisis that’s turned hundreds of thousands of people of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic into refugees, you’re not alone. The media has done its best to ignore the issue, instead devoting airtime to its Donald Trump equivalent.

Here’s the gist: after a 2013 court ruling, the Dominican Republican government redefined citizenship to exclude Dominican-born children of Haitians who immigrated to the country as far back as 1929. Children and even grandchildren who don’t speak a word of French or Creole have been left stateless.

This summer, the situation escalated after the Dominican government started carrying out deportations. Hundreds of people have already been abandoned at the Haitian border, and thousands more could be next.

There’s a scary parallel taking place: as this year’s crop of backwards and out-of-touch Republican presidential candidates debate stripping millions of future Americans of their constitutional rights, the Dominican Republic is putting those ideas into practice.

The common threads are xenophobia and demographics: just as the U.S. Latino community’s rising strength has triggered the Republican freak-out we’re witnessing, the growing numbers of Haitians working in the Dominican Republic have pushed the island nation’s own right wing into panic mode. In both countries, it’s the fear of the other that’s prompted the divisive examination of who doesn’t deserve to be a citizen.

While European nations and human rights activists have rightfully described the crisis in the Dominican Republic as a new apartheid, many Democrats have stayed silent because of the strength in numbers – the 1.5 million Dominicans in the U.S. naturally wield more clout than our country’s nearly 900,00 Haitians. These numbers have made politicians soften, obfuscate or even flip their position.

Here in New York, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel was an outspoken voice for Haiti for most of his career. But in 2013, he was set to host a forum stacked with Dominican government officials ready to defend their country’s actions. Rangel only canceled the event after pressure was applied by the progressive unions SEIU 1199 and 32BJ.

The end result of all this? Our country is sitting on the sidelines watching conditions in the Dominican Republic worsen.

The situation unfolding in the Dominican Republic isn’t just a tragedy – it’s a dystopian glimpse into the future of what would happen here if a President Donald Trump ever managed to repeal birthright citizenship.

But while Trump has given us the perfect opportunity to spotlight this injustice, Republicans, and too few Democrats are interested in seizing it.

Bertha Lewis is the founder and president of the Black Institute.