ACROSS PUERTO RICO BORDERS:
A CARIBBEAN SMUGGLING EXPRESSWAY
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| MONA PASSAGE / CANAL DE LA MONA |
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The immigration arriving from the Caribbean into Puerto Rico in transit to continental U.S., has some very peculiar characteristics. A recent immigration pattern finds Cubans and Haitians migrating into the Dominican Republic as a stepping stone to Puerto Rico, and is eventually headed to the U.S. (for the most part). Migrants pay traffickers up to $6000 to be smuggled into Puerto Rico, and usually the Caribbean island is only a stop on the route to U.S. mainland. For once migrants are in this Caribbean island, they can travel to any U.S. destination freely. The human traffic bring Dominicans, Haitian, and Cubans into Puerto Rico from across the waters of the Mona Channel, navigating extremely fragile boats or “YOLAS”. The Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, is the place where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea meet. It is located south to the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean.The currents are extremely dangerous, waves average over 12 feet high all year around, and the sea is infested by sharks.
Some observations about this migration phenomena:
The immigration arriving from the Caribbean into Puerto Rico in transit to continental U.S., has some very peculiar characteristics. A recent immigration pattern finds Cubans and Haitians migrating into the Dominican Republic as a stepping stone to Puerto Rico, and is eventually headed to the U.S. (for the most part). Migrants pay traffickers up to $6000 to be smuggled into Puerto Rico, and usually the Caribbean island is only a stop on the route to U.S. mainland. For once migrants are in this Caribbean island, they can travel to any U.S. destination freely. The human traffic bring Dominicans, Haitian, and Cubans into Puerto Rico from across the waters of the Mona Channel, navigating extremely fragile boats or “YOLAS”. The Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, is the place where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea meet. It is located south to the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean.The currents are extremely dangerous, waves average over 12 feet high all year around, and the sea is infested by sharks.
Some observations about this migration phenomena:
> Haitians who migrate to Dominican
Republic are victims of racist stereotyping. They are subjected to all kinds of
racial discrimination, suffer housing and education discrimination, and are
mostly employed in low-income jobs. Meanwhile, they try to assimilate Dominican
looks and customs, hoping to pass as Dominicans. Dominicans who migrate
to Puerto Rico are subjected to all
kinds of racist stereotyping, suffer
housing and education discrimination, and are mostly employed in low-income
jobs. Meanwhile, they try to assimilate Puertorican looks and customs, hoping
to pass as Puertoricans. Unskilled Puertoricans who migrate to the U.S.
are subjected to all kinds of racist
stereotyping, suffer housing and education discrimination, and are mostly
employed in low-income jobs.
It appears that Dominicans are
perceived in Puerto Rico in a very similar manner to the way Haitians are
viewed in the Dominican Republic and ultimately how Puerto Ricans themselves
are viewed in the United States.
> The Mona Passage is one of the main sea
routes leading to the Panama Canal, and it is by no means a serene waterway.
The passage, 80 miles wide, is where two major bodies of water meet and their
currents collide. Waves average over 12 feet all year around. Sharks populate
the waters. Navigating without instruments in this channel can cause boats to
get lost. The frightening seas and terrifying waves can make people lose their
reason quickly. Many die from starvation or dehydration, and many fall into the
water. Some survivors have reportedly had to resort to cannibalism, so often
dead bodies are not discarded but kept on-board.
> It is not known -maybe we’ll never know -
how many people have perished crossing the passage. A few years ago, 500 people
perished in a single instance, leaving the Dominican Republic.
> It has been reported that around a town like
Nagua on the Dominican Republic east coast, you’ll find the smuggling activity
is pretty open, and town people are generally aware of departure schedules.
> If caught, a Dominican migrant is returned
to his country and does not face charges from either country. Traffickers
caught by the authorities in Puerto Rico do face charges and jail time.
> Immigrating through the Mona Passage is so
risky, the unwritten rule is do not travel with relatives nor friends. The
extreme situation out there can be so severe that there will be no mercy among
passengers in order to survive.
> Smuggling is very much a business run by
criminal organizations, and traffickers survive by acting accordingly. These are reputed to
be extremely dangerous folks, who may make this suicidal voyage a few times a
week. Smugglers are the final authority out in the seas. First person accounts by survivors say these
fragile boats are overloaded with migrants, in order to maximize profits. The
yolas tend to travel without lights or navigation devices, in order not to
attract attention. Passengers may be thrown aboard by traffickers, or may be
forced to jump off boats in danger of capsizing. Menstruating women have been
thrown overboard for fear of attracting sharks. Upon arrival to Puerto Rico
coasts, traffickers prefer to drop passengers and have them swim into the
island’s beaches.
> The number of Dominican illegal immigrants
residing in Puerto Rico is not known. It is known that in a period of three
decades, Dominicans nationals have grown to be the largest immigrant group. The
2010 census estimated Dominicans nationals account for of almost 2% of the
island’s population. San Juan, Puerto Rico now has the second largest number of
migrant Dominicans after New York City.
> The number of Haitian illegal immigrants
residing in Dominican Republic is not known. Some sources estimate a
figure of around a million. The anti-Haitian migrant sentiment in the Dominican
Republic is not only racist, it is also a nationalistic sentiment. To
sympathize with the plight of Haitians can be considered anti-Dominican. Black
Dominicans do not think of themselves as blacks, and make a strong distinction
between Haitian and themselves. Therefore, there have been waves of Haitian
mass expulsions, and today it is common to deport people rounded up by the
color of their skin according to human rights groups.
> Puerto Rico is a territory of the U.S., and
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has no jurisdiction over immigration matters.
waters are patrolled by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Border Patrol. Relations
with the Dominican Republic government are conducted by the U.S. government,
without Puertorican representation.
> Since Dominicans in Puerto Rico are mostly in transit
and do not intend to stay, and possibly because of the discrimination they endure, they
tend not to develop social-cultural-political roots. Their influence in popular
music is huge, however.
POROUS "border": armed Cubans cigarette boat into Key West, search for someone to surrender to; Bahamian mule-smugglers cigarette boat into Islamorada, steal another boat to pickup illegals overnight,Then RETURN the next morning into Little Duck Key during the 7-Mile Bridege Run as the INS chief running in the race arrives to their illegal entry under His NOSE! Any terrorists desiring to light a cigarette boat filled with explosives beneath the runner-crowded bridge could have done the same! Helluva JOB, Border Patrol and USCG!
ReplyDeleteApparently this blog entry is as full of half-truths as your profile absent of any clues as to who you really are (but which makes your motives very clear, second-generation US-born ethnic Haitian perhaps?). The internet may be a blank canvas for anything and anyone, but please don't insult the intelligence -or exploit the unawareness- of your readers. Educate yourself first with FACTS; and as you do it, use reputable sources, too.
ReplyDeleteSo here are the FACTS: There are WAY over 1.5 million Haitians in the Dominican Republic, most of them residing illegally; they take advantage of a long porous border and lax controls, for the most part. The influx of illegal Haitian migrants has managed to sink and freeze wages in certain low-skilled occupations, thus creating a dragging effect on salaries overall; they do not generate new jobs, increase any form of tax collection, or promote growth benefiting the general population, only managing to further enrich the bottom line of those very few who employ them -or exploit them, depending on one's point of view-. The flow of illegal Haitians in the DR strains even more already stretched public hospitals and a many other government services. It is perhaps the worst form of immigration -a reductive one-, one that only takes and never gives. No wonder the poorest Dominicans still see illegal immigration as a way out from a country where the job market is besieged and stagnated by foreigners. BUT don't take my word for all of the above, there are formal studies and research who already pointed these FACTS for all to see.
Anonymus must be Dominican with all that anti haitian retoric. In no way did this article not state the facts or half truths aappearantly there is a palpable hatred for Haitians since the reign of Trujillo and if the "FACT" that you stated rationalise why its ok to treat people as sub human something is wrong.
DeleteAdditionally, As for your remarks on racism, discrimination, and some veiled suggestions of "self-hate", let's look at the REAL evidence. If the intolerant, unwelcoming atmosphere you describe did exist in a developing country like the DR, then the illegal masses of Haitians roaming freely in cities and towns in huge -and I mean HUGE numbers-, would simply not be there, or would fight any efforts for deportation. PERIOD. And please, do also apply a dose of reality on the thousands of Haitian college students and graduates who are infiltrating the Dominican job market, creating further tensions there.
ReplyDeleteHaitians DO NOT want, nor would, want to "pass" as Dominicans. Haitians DO NOT make efforts to integrate -as the numerous conflict with locals wherever they try to settle demonstrates-. Haitian history -which they tend to glorify only when convenient- reveals well over of half-a-century of invasions, mass murder, pillage, a costly/bloody fight for freedom, and overall ethnic cleansing measures of Haitians upon Dominicans and their ancestors, including a grueling 22-year-long occupation that is very well-ingrained and remembered in Dominicans' collective memory. Only when the tables have turned on Haitians as a result of their self-inflicted social and economic failures, they play "victim cards" for all to see.
Are you retarded? I'm not even Haitian but have read enough about the reign of Trullijo to know that that alone renders the other crap you read as completely idiotic. The bottom line is the conquerors did their job. You cannot corrupt and distroy people that rally together to fight against the oppressor. Dominicans are too caught up in wishing they were from Spain like the people who conquered and brainwashed them.
DeleteFinally, Dominicans know well what others simply do not care about, particularly the fact that hate toward Dominicans is actively promoted in schools, social and intellectual circles in and outside of Haiti, plus a vision of a pan-island Haitian nation where the Dominican Republic would eventually be dissolved. You reap what you sow, I guess. Don't ask for respect and tolerance, when you are unable to give any.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's an ethnic "thing". It is an ethnic "thing", for survival and self-preservation.
Of all your claims, the ones that I find most disturbing ones, are the ones on race. If Haitians have had a perpetual black-versus-mulatto social conflict -95% of population versus the rest-, the same does not apply in the DR. The DR is mostly mulatto, 17% white, and has a 10% of black nationals; those Dominican blacks ARE VERY clear about who they are, Dominican above all, and do not sell out to other agendas or tolerate being called "Haitian". They are not, pure and simple. Dominicans know who they are, because if they didn't, they would have been wiped out as a people a long time ago.
I'd suggest you scour the news and discover now that, if not the majority already, many of the illegal immigrants crossing the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico are in fact, HAITIAN nationals. Knock yourself out!
Asi es , Sabemos quienes somos . Los que estan perdido son los boricuas .
DeleteMarta
Thank you for sharing nice information. I am very impressed your blog. your immigration blog look is very nice and your information very important for me.
ReplyDeleteUS Entry Waiver
Dominican need to stay in there own fucking island... Cocktail sukers
ReplyDeleteWe will eventually have as much input in Puerto Rico politics and decisions as you do so get used to us . Hijo de putas
DeleteFuck you Anonymous 2. Go back to the Dominican Republic so you can continue to breed with your Haitian brothers and sisters. Puerto Rico doesn't want your kind.
DeleteFuck you Anonymous 2. Go back to the Dominican Republican so you can continue to breed with your Haitian brothers and sisters. Puerto Rico doesn't want your kind.
ReplyDelete