Santo Domingo, RD.
Nearly five years after the Dominican government and the United States signed the “preclearence,” or pre-authorization, which establishes that travelers are subject to United States Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP, for the acronym) inspections, on The Punta Cana airport, before boarding a flight to the United States, the issue came to light again on Sunday.
The immigration, customs, and agricultural inspections that US agents would conduct in the country were submitted by former President Danilo Medina to the Constitutional Court (TC) on December 8, 2016 to determine whether it violated the Dominican constitution.
Given the selection of the four new members to the TC by the National Council of the Magistracy (CNM), several personalities have expressed their support and rejected the acceptance of the matter with a verdict in favor of the agreement.
Via his Twitter account, former Dominican ambassador to the United States, José Tomas Pérez, on Sunday requested that the Constitutional Court proceed to the agreement, which he understands was filed by ultra-nationalist judges.
“Attention Chancellery! Let’s hope that the TC, now renewed, will finally give way to the US-DR “preclearance” deal filed by some ultra-nationalist judges who even saw aggression against national sovereignty in the soup, “he wrote on his own. Twitter account.
While the Presidency’s administrative minister, José Ignacio Paliza, also expressed his support for raising awareness of the matter among the new Constitutional Court authorities, putting the country on the level of other nations.
“A high national priority pending task in @Tr TribunalConstRD is the US-DR“ preclearence ”agreement, an instrument that would generate over 1 million tourists per year. We would join the Bahamas, Canada and Abu Dhabi, among others, which have access to 160 new destinations, ”he also posted on Twitter.
Personalities such as the former Director General of Migration, José Ricardo Taveras; the former Secretary of Energy and Mines and a member of the National Progressive Force (FNP), Pelegrin Castillo and the former deputy and also a member of the FNP, Vinicio Castillo, expressed their rejection of the agreement, knowing that one of the annexes violate Dominican sovereignty.
For them, the added appendix on refugees changes the sovereignty established in the country on this matter to take over the sovereignty imposed by the United States.
“Preautorization Agreement, with an attachment added, makes the DR a land of refuge and asylum … Those who do not wish to receive the US there … endorses them at the DR … President @luisabinader has the opportunity to to renegotiate it … because it must formally reject @INM_RD’s occupation plan, ”said Pelegrin Castillo.
“The debate is not about a pre-authorization or preclearence agreement signed with the US. We fully agree with that. The debate is that in return we must renounce our sovereignty in refugee policy. That is unacceptable. And every Dominican has to turn it down, ”Vinicito wrote.
About the deal
In December 2016, the Dominican Republic, led by then Secretary of State Miguel Vargas Maldonado, and the United States, represented by Ambassador James W. Brewster, signed an agreement to conduct pre-authorization activities at Punta International Airport. Cane.
This allows CBP agents stationed abroad to inspect and make admissibility decisions about passengers and their goods or baggage to the United States before leaving a foreign port.
In interviews with the National Council of the Magistracy on January 17, President Luis Abinader also raised the issue of pre-authorization by asking one of the interviewees, the young Argenis García del Rosario, what his opinion was on the matter.
During a visit to the municipal district of Verón-Punta Cana, according to El Tiempo newspaper, Tourism Minister David Collado stated that they expected this agreement to be applied at the airport before December.
“One of the points discussed is to get the airport in order by December, as that is a competitive advantage over all countries in the region,” explains the newspaper Collado explains in an interview.