Dominican nationality. In 2004, Section VII, Article 10 of the Ley General de Migración (República Dominicana 2004: 22) made it official that anyone who is not a legal resident is, for the purposes of the law, “in transit,” and hence that person’s Dominican-born children excludable from birthright citizenship. It is these Dominican-born people of Haitian ancestry who for a decade have been provisionally denied copies of their official documents when they request these at civil registry offices. While awaiting investigation of their parents’ immigration histories, the people thus affected are thrown into a legal limbo, their citizenship effectively revoked. This is by international law a form of statelessness: the relationship of belonging that the people so affected have had since birth with the state of their birth is being annulled, without consideration of whether it is possible even in principle, let alone in practice, to obtain their immigrant ancestors’ nationality. Uncounted thousands have “Nationality stripping began even been thus thrown into citizenship limbo when seeking to renew their cédu- before the Dominican Constitulas or obtain official replica documents tion’s amendments, blocking citifor university enrolment or foreign zenship for children of foreigners travel, and their birth certificates are indicative of being the offspring of an not residing legally in the country, undocumented immigrant. Nationality took effect in January 2010” stripping began even before the Dominican Constitution’s amendments, blocking citizenship for children of foreigners not residing legally in the country, took effect in January 2010. It is now the government’s contention that the “in transit” exclusion of the children of undocumented immigrants from jus soli has been its official policy all along, even though that policy lacked public legal content until 2007, the point at which the Central Electoral Board (JCE) announced, through administrative dispositions, that it could suspend any applicant’s citizenship pending forensic investigation of their parents’ immigration status at the time of birth. The Sentence Even as the September 23rd ruling went well beyond simply confirming the validity of the dispositions, the ruling did not explicitly foresee massive deportations. The court ordered three massive tasks to be carried out within a year’s time by three other sectors of government, the Ministry of the Interior and National Police with its Migration authorities, the JCE and the Dominican Congress. The court ordered the Police and Migration authorities to compile a list of everyone living in the country that does not have a legal residency permit. Second, it tasked the JCE to gather a list of “foreigners” (meaning the Dominican-born children of non-legally-resident foreign nationals) whose birth certifihttp://community.apsanet.org/migrationcitizenship/home 22