Santo Domingo.- Former Central Electoral Board President and Fuerza del Pueblo political leader Roberto Rosario has sounded the alarm over mounting pressure from the Dominican Republic’s tourism sector to implement a new plan regulating Haitian workers. Speaking on the television program “Hoy Mismo” (Color Visión) and radio station La Súper 7, Rosario noted that unlike construction and agriculture, which have long relied on Haitian labor, hotel and resort operators are now lobbying for formal quotas.
Rosario argued that any jobs generated by the booming tourism sector could be readily filled by Dominican workers. He cautioned that periodic “regulation plans” risk becoming a permanent fixture unless clear policies are established to train and qualify locals for those roles. “We must preserve Dominican labor and exercise state control over migration,” he said.
Highlighting a dramatic demographic shift, Rosario recalled that in 2017 roughly 500,000 foreigners lived in the country under manageable conditions. Today, he warned, that figure has “multiplied considerably,” driven by Haitians fleeing what he described as a “dysfunctional narco-state.” “There is no prospect for resolution on the horizon,” he lamented.
To reduce reliance on migrant workers, Rosario urged the government to mechanize agricultural production and streamline internal labor processes. Without such measures, he predicted, dependence on Haitian labor will only deepen complications across both rural and urban economies.
Rosario’s 2024 warning on migration enforcement
In October 2024, Rosario publicly challenged President Luis Abinader to enforce migration policies consistently, following comments by Agriculture Minister Limber Cruz defending the use of undocumented Haitian labor. Rosario pointed out that the 2014 Migration Law’s regularization plan should have been used to legalize these workers rather than circumvented. He accused Cruz of violating national law and profiting from human-trafficking networks that exploit irregular migrants.
Rosario concluded that without accountability, both for business owners who hire undocumented workers and for officials who enable them, sovereignty and the rule of law will continue to erode. “If we truly defend our national identity, we must also defend our laws,” he said.
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