[Dolores]

By Dominican law, confirmed with a Supreme Court ruling, the birth of children born to parents that are not legal residents or citizens of the Dominican Republic is recorded in a birth book in the hospital, certifying the birth took place here.

The birth certificates that were granted before were irregular, a "fee" was charged for the service but the birth certificates and subsequent cedulas that were issued were in violation with Dominican law.

Dominican law also establishes that all children living in the DR have a right to education, regardless of citizenship or legal residency.

The big problem, and this also happens with hundreds of thousands of children born to Dominican-born parents, is that if the parents aren't legal or do not have a legal identity from any nation, then the children will have a hard time existing legally and thus unless they get an irregular cedula they need to live an underground life, despite being able to get at least a grade school education.

If the parents have Haitian legal documentation, then they need to request a Haitian birth certificate from the Haitian embassy in the DR. With that the child can have an identity as a Haitian and go to school through university. There are no restrictions here for Haitians studying in Dominican schools -- Haitians are charged as Dominicans in the larger universities. Only in some private universities are they given foreigner treatment.