By Vania Andre

New York’s Dominican community came out in a show of solidarity on Wednesday to protest the planned deportations of tens of thousands of Dominico-Haitians from the Dominican Republic.

On June 17, New Yorkers of Dominican descent protested outside of the Dominican consulate near Times Square, to show their stance against the country’s controversial immigration policy, which could render thousands of Dominico-Haitians stateless. The organizers of the protest planned the demonstration as part of a larger anti-racism push in the Dominican Republic.

The New York State Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the denationalization of Dominicans of Haitian descent, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte announced on Tuesday. The bill states that New Yorkers–Dominicans, Haitians, Caribbeans, and many others–care about what’s happening inside Dominican Republic.

Haitian-American Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte is urging the New York State Assembly to vote on a resolution she introduced on Monday that calls for the United States Congress to condemn the Dominican Republic’s action against Dominicans of Haitian descent. In 2013 the Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court left hundreds of thousands Haitian Dominicans stateless, after stripping them of their citizenship.

“I take this action to draw the world’s eyes to the Dominican Republic’s abuse of Dominicans of Haitian descent, and efforts to strip them of their rights and citizenship,” said Bichotte, who announced yesterday she has been on a hunger strike for days.