Obstructive practices have been well documented by various international organizations (IACHR 2015: 47144). According to a recent regional study: In the Dominican Republic, it is known that ever since the proclamation of Law 169-14, the registration of births of children born on Dominican soil to foreign parents or mixed couples have presented several challenges in complying with the demands of the varied requirements that are requested and that in some cases have been considered extra-legal (UNHCR and OAS 2020a: 86). Jointly with Dominican civil society, international organizations (including UNHCR, United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, and United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF) and regional organizations (Organization of American States, OAS and IACHR) continue to support dialogue with the Dominican State to conclude the implementation and identify solutions for those who could not avail themselves of the procedures established by the law. From Group A, some 34,947 people have yet to recover their Dominican nationality as ordered by Law 169-14. In addition, there are people with suspended documents who do not appear on the list of affected persons produced by the JCE. From Group B, not a single person registered under the special regime established by Law 169-14 has been naturalized despite the presidential decrees that will be explained below. A large part of this group has remained with foreign identity cards or regularization cards that have already expired, since the competent institutions have not defined the procedures for renewal and eventual naturalization. During his last days in office in July 2020, former President Danilo Medina authorized the naturalization of 749 children and adolescents through Decree 26220, almost all of them cases accompanied by UNHCR and associated civil society organizations. In May 2021, the Decree had still not been implemented, and three injunctions on the grounds of alleged unconstitutionality had been filed against it by individuals belonging to a small group of nationalists who have long objected to any regularization or naturalization action. In addition to the 749 children and adolescents, at least 1,829 people had submitted their naturalization applications with the Ministry of Interior and Police (MIP). On April 30, 2021, the current president, Luis Abinader, signed Decree 297-21 granting Dominican nationality through naturalization to 50 people who had applied for the Group B regime under Law 169-14. However, the same Law 169-14 and its Implementation Act 250-14 have created a dead end for the concerned population, since they refer to the ordinary naturalization procedure (established by Law 1683 of 1948, modified by Law 4063 of 1955) which requires a passport from the country of origin, among other requirements which are impossible to meet. Greater transparency regarding the implementation procedures of Decrees 262-20 and 297-21 is needed, as are Executive decisions regarding naturalization solutions for the rest of the registered Group B. In addition to groups A and B, there are at least two other groups without access to their right to an identity and a nationality: Group B2 and descendants of mixed couples. UNHCR uses the term “Group B2” to refer to the population comprising those people who, complying with the requirements established in paragraph B of the first article of Law 169-14, were unable or did not want to avail themselves of the registration procedure during the 180 days that it remained open2, and for whom, currently, there is no legal pathway to access Dominican nationality. Mixed couples is a term coined by OBMICA in our publication Gender and the Risk of Statelessness for the Population of Haitian Descent in the Bateyes of the Dominican Republic (Petrozziello et al. 2014 and 2017), to identify descendants who have one Dominican parent and one foreign parent. When the mother is an undocumented foreigner, it is difficult for her to access the Dominican civil registry even if the father is a documented national (OBMICA 2018).3 Today, while this profile is widely taken into account by national and international actors working on the issue, the Dominican State has yet to make any efforts to clarify the procedures to facilitate access to national identity documentation for children of mixed couples. The law established a 90-day period for registration, but in practice it was extended for an additional 90 days. 3. To learn more about the problem and the ongoing efforts to resolve it, watch the Spanish-language short film “Freedom: Stories of the children of mixed couples” (OBMICA 2019), https:// youtu.be/NPy98MEZztU 2. Research Brief: COVID-19 Impacts on Haitian Migrants and their Descendants on the Southern Border of the D.R. 17