The truncated dream of Dominicans deported from the United States

Sabana de la Mar.- Every week, dozens of Dominicans land in Santo Domingo after being deported from the United States, leaving behind families, homes, and the dream of achieving a better future. Those longings began for many in the fishing municipality of Sabana de la Mar, located in the province of Hato Mayor, in the eastern region of the Dominican Republic, from where a large number of Dominicans set off on their irregular journey to Puerto Rico, an associated state of the United States, from which they are now returning after being deported. One of those who had to give up that dream was Fausto Espino, father of six children and a resident of Sabana de la Mar.

“They stopped me in front of my house when I got home from work,” Espino told EFE, who was recently repatriated from the United States, a country that has deported around 2,100 Dominicans in irregular immigration status this year.

The Life Change of Dominicans Deported from the United States

This sabanalamarino arrived on the neighboring island on an irregular trip in a yola, a typical boat made of wood or fiber widely used in fishing tasks and also used on these occasions. Espino worked in Puerto Rico for seven years as a cabinetmaker, the profession he learned in his family, along with other professional activities. Once arrested, he was transferred by the North American authorities to the Puerto Rican capital, then to Aguadilla (Puerto Rico) and, later, to Miami (United States). Then, Espino was taken to Texas (United States), where he remained detained for a month until he was finally able to leave, after a bus trip to the state of Louisiana, on a plane full of Dominicans bound for Santo Domingo chartered by the US government. The arrest put an end to a project that began for Espino with his trip by boat to Puerto Rico in 2017, in which he took advantage of the catastrophe caused by Hurricane Maria in September of that year and which caused nearly three thousand deaths on the island. “Everyone was running to go to Puerto Rico, there was little surveillance,” Espino told EFE.

They left seeking opportunities

The years in the free associated state with the United States allowed him to help his family, especially his children. “The salary here is not the same as the salary there, here you have to fight hard to earn 5,000 pesos each month,” indicated the repatriated Dominican. Another one who left in search of opportunities was Luis Alberto Tejada, a 35-year-old resident of Sabana de la Mar, who was also deported a month ago. Tejada worked for two years as a bricklayer in Puerto Rico, which allowed him to help renovate his mother’s house in the Dominican Republic, where he now lives. «The only problem we had was now with Donald Trump,» he stated. According to Tejada, before the new US immigration policy, he and other Dominicans in an irregular situation lived peacefully.

«It was as if the bank had called the authorities to come and get us»

In his case, he was helped by his aunt and brother who already lived in the “Island of Enchantment” prior to his arrival. The authorities in Puerto Rico arrested Tejada and other Dominicans who were with him in a banking institution.

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“We were cashing some checks. It was as if the bank had called the authorities to come and get us,” he recalled. Following his arrest, Tejada was transferred to Louisiana where he remained for a day detained in an immigration detention center for irregular immigrants. “There were Dominicans, Africans, Chinese, Spaniards, from all the countries of the world,” indicated the bricklayer.

The Hard Road of Deportation

From Louisiana, Tejadalo was taken to the Krome immigration detention center in Florida, where he was locked up for fifteen days. “It’s a very large tent, divided in two, on each side there are 126 detainees,” he specified. After those two weeks, Tejada was also deported by air to Santo Domingo on a plane that transported another two hundred passengers. Since he returned to the Dominican Republic, Tejada plans to continue working as a bricklayer, specializing in the placement of ceramics, although he acknowledged that there are few opportunities for young people in the municipality where he lives. Tejada would like more job sources to be created “so that young people do not have to take the sea again and go to Puerto Rico.”