ABSTRACT
In September 2013, a Dominican Republic Constitutional Court ruling threatened to revoke the citizenship rights of the children of foreign-born parents lacking a proper immigration status, disproportionally affecting people of Haitian descent. In response, Haitian and Dominican diasporas in the United States engaged in dissent public relations efforts through protests and media advocacy, calling international attention to the hundreds of thousands of people who would be left stateless by this ruling. Through this case study, the present chapter details how the dissent public relations efforts used by these diasporas resulted in a 2014 Dominican naturalization law, which offered respite to some of the people affected, and effectively kept international media attention on this issue, despite the Dominican government’s efforts to put it to rest.
