During the 2000s, one of the most recurrent themes in Puerto Rican news media has been Dominican immigration to Puerto Rico. This article is about the year 2000. ... News media satellite up-link trucks and photojournalists gathered outside the Prudential Financial headquarters in Newark, New Jersey in August, 2004 following the announcement of evidence of a terrorist threat to it and to buildings in New York City. ...

Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, following the Spanish-American War. Also ceded were Guam and the Philippines; Cuba was relinquished and became independent in 1902. Although an independence movement has existed in Puerto Rico throughout its rule by the United States, it has yet to gain mainstream acceptance. The Philippines became independent in 1946; Puerto Rico and Guam have remained associated with the US. Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917, which allows them to move to the mainland without any restrictions. 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Treaty of Paris of 1898, signed on December 10, 1898, ended the Spanish-American War. ... Combatants United States Republic of Cuba Philippine Republic Spain Commanders Nelson A. Miles William R. Shafter George Dewey Máximo Gómez Emilio Aguinaldo Patricio Montojo Pascual Cervera Casualties 3,289 U.S. dead (only 332 from combat); considerably higher although undetermined Cuban and Filipino casualties Unknown[1] The Spanish... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Flag of Puerto Rico The political movement for Puerto Rican Independence (Lucha por la Independencia Puertorriqueña) has existed since the mid-19th century and has advocated independence of the island of Puerto Rico, in varying degrees, from Spain (in the 19th century) or the United States (from 1898 to... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Year 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ...

With its association with the United States, Puerto Rico has enjoyed the richest per capita economy in all of Latin America, aided by substantial investment from American businesses. When Luis Muñoz Marín became governor of Puerto Rico in 1948, one of his principal endeavors was to give Puerto Rico certain independent privileges, such as self rule and individual sports citizenship, so it was during his governance that Puerto Rico became a commonwealth of the United States, under which the island has had a fair (though not complete) degree of autonomy. Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín (February 18, 1898 – April 30, 1980) was a poet, journalist and politician. ... Self rule is used to described a people or group being able to exercise all of the necessary functions of power without intervention from any authority which they cannot themselves alter. ... In the terminology of the United States insular areas, a commonwealth is an organized territory that has established with the Federal Government a more highly developed relationship, usually embodied in a written mutual agreement. ...

The Dominican Republic, meanwhile, has suffered from persistent poverty since that nation ended the 30-year dictartorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. The Dominican Republic did have a prosperous economy under Trujillo, but after his assassination in 1961 the country's economy has had many falls (See History of the Dominican Republic) due to misrule and massive corruption. Although there are substantial upper-class and middle-class segments, a large portion of the Dominican Republic is marked by extreme poverty, which has led to the steady increase of attempts by some Dominican citizens to illegally migrate to Puerto Rico over recent decades. This article is about Rafael L. Trujillo, former president of the Dominican Republic. ... The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola. ...

Overview

While some Puerto Ricans do not view Dominican immigrants as a problem to society (since many Puerto-Ricans migrated to the Dominican Republic before Puerto Rico became a commonwealth of the U.S.), many see the large Dominican presence on the island as a nuisance.^{[citation needed]} The English noun Commonwealth dates originally from the fifteenth century. ... Nuisance is a common law tort. ...

What most Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are opposed to, however, is the way in which some poor Dominicans travel illegally to the island. Trying to escape from poverty and lured by the American Dream, many poor Dominicans board small wooden boats, known as yolas, to reach Puerto Rico. These illegal trips often result in tragedies at sea.

Many yolas are commanded by people, either Puerto Ricans or Dominicans, who are somehow connected to organized crime and benefit from the prices imposed on travelers.^{[citation needed]} Some people have paid up to 5,000 US dollars to be transported on a boat from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico.^{[citation needed]} The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ...

Dominicans who pay so much money to get to Puerto Rico on a boat hope that, if they reach Puerto Rico, they will not be caught and re-patriated by the appropriate agencies. Basically, that would be the only benefit of travelling by yola from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico: should the yola make it to Puerto Rican territory, many passengers can escape without being detected by the police, the FBI, US Coast Guard, or others. Many Dominicans who survive these trips and are not caught after arriving in Puerto Rico, either choose to go to Mayaguez, the largest city in western Puerto Rico, or to San Juan, where a considerable number of Dominicans reside. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Coast Guard shield The United States Coast Guard is the coast guard of the United States. ... Mayagüez (pronounced Mah-yah-goo-ehz) is the third largest city of Puerto Rico. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Many of those yola travellers who get to Mayaguez, San Juan or any other area in Puerto Rico find it hard to get jobs, both because of their immigration problems and because of the competition for jobs with Puerto Rican workers. Therefore, some have turned to underworld activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution. Also the increasing presence of the Dominican mafia in Puerto Rico is causing mob wars with other Puerto Rican mafia/underground groups. Mayaguez may refer to: Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Mayaguez incident This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events...

Dominican immigration to Puerto Rico by sea has increased steadily since the 1940s. Sea as seen from jetty in Frankston, Australia Look up maritime in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949. ...

Risks by sea

Abandoned yola in the beach of Aguadilla, P.R.

Travelling illegally from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico can be as dangerous, if not more dangerous, as travelling from Mexico to the United States through the Sonora desert, for example. Image File history File links Dominican_boat. ... Categories: Stub | Deserts | Ecoregions | Arizona geography | California geography | Geography of Mexico ...

Yolas are extremely small boats made of wood, and sometimes, in order to make more profit, trip planners and ship captains put hundreds of people together in boats that are very unfit for such large numbers of travelers. Trunks A tree trunk as found at the Veluwe, The Netherlands Wood is a solid material derived from woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs. ...

Most illegal trips to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic begin in cities located at the Eastern coast of the country, particularly in the city of Nagua.^{[citation needed]}

Boats travelling from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico navigate directly over the Puerto Rico trench, which is an underwater crater area, or they transit through the Mona Passage. The Puerto Rico trench is an active seismic area that has been calculated to be larger than the San Andreas Fault in California. The activity there makes sea waves much stronger, which, combined with excessive amounts of passengers on yolas, increases the risk that a yola will suffer some type of accident during any moment of the trip. The Puerto Rican news media frequently report on yola wreckages found adrift. Location map Puerto Rico trench - USGS The Puerto Rico Trench is an oceanic trench located on the boundary between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. ... The Mona Passage is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. ... View of the San Andreas Fault on the Carrizo Plain in central California, 35°07N, 119°39W The San Andreas Fault is a geological fault that runs a length of roughly 800 miles (1300 kilometres) through western and southern California in the United States. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ...

Survivor stories about illegal trips from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico can be horrifying. Tales ranging from people being eaten alive by sharks and people being forced to jump into the sea by their families are common. Passengers are usually forced off the ships when there is a danger of sinking. Others tell of seeing their loved ones left behind, to drown after a heavy wave has overturned one of these yolas. Yet many others also tell of corpses left on board; people also die of starvation or dehydration since these "yolas" can get lost out at sea for days and many have no type of navigation equipment on board to steer them in the right direction. Also, upon seeing the Puerto Rican coasts, some Dominicans rush their way out of boats before the yola reaches land; this practice, led by an emotional state, has led to many cases where the yola overturns, and many Dominicans make it to the coast safely, yet others lose their lives and have their bodies show up ashore hours later. A female child during the Nigerian-Biafran war of the late 1960s, shown suffering the effects of severe hunger and malnutrition. ... Dehydration (hypohydration) is the removal of water (hydro in ancient Greek) from an object. ...

Illegal immigrant traffickers and ship captains are not exempt from some of these dangers either, as, many times, some of the ships travelling from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico have sunk and left everybody on the ship dead.

Famous tragedies in such trips include a 1989 sinking near Mona Island where as many as 500 perished, and other, comparatively small, tragedies where groups of 30 or more passengers have died. Perhaps the most famous of these tragic trips was the Nagua tragedy, named so because the yola heading to Puerto Rico that time sunk while trying to make its way out of a beach in Nagua. More than one hundred died, including the ship's captain and the trip planner. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mona Mona (a. ...

It should be pointed out that not all illegal trips to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic end in tragedy. These trips are massively scheduled by traffickers, who sometimes travel up to three times each week from Puerto Rico to illegally bring Dominicans. But, because of the large amount of lives lost during these trips, both the governments of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have launched massive media campaigns to try to reduce them. In the Dominican Republic, videos of dead bodies on the water are shown on television, to try to deter people from travelling to Puerto Rico on yolas.

Law

Those who traffic in illegal immigrants to Puerto Rico face long periods in jail if caught. Dominicans who get caught are flown back to their country, where they do not face criminal charges.

Government agencies usually depend on the services of commercial airlines such as American Airlines, Fina Air or Iberia Airlines to return illegal immigrants from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic. American Airlines (AA) is the largest airline in the world in terms of total passengers-miles transported [1] and fleet size[], and the second-largest airline in the world (behind Air France-KLM) in terms of total operating revenues[]. A wholly owned subsidiary of the AMR Corporation, the airline is... Fina Air Saab 340, registration number N112-PX, at Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. ... Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. (Iberia Airlines of Spain in English), usually shortened to Iberia, is the largest airline of Spain, based in Madrid. ...

Notable Dominican Immigrants

Below is a list of notable Dominicans who have emigrated to Puerto Rico and live or have lived there for a considerable amount of time:

• Dr. Nancy Alvarez
• Charytin
• Magali Febles
• Birmania Rios
• Ludo Vika

Charytin Goyco (born May 23, 1950), better known in the show business plainly as Charytin, is a singer and actress from the Dominican Republic. ... Magali Febles (born 1951) is a famous Dominican beautician. ... Birmania Rios (born circa 1973 in New York City) is a Dominican-American television news journalist. ... Ludo Vika is a Dominican-born actress and comedienne. ...

See also

• Royal Decree of Graces of 1815

Puerto Rican immigration and migration series
African immigration to Puerto Rico Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico Dominican immigration to Puerto Rico French immigration to Puerto Rico German immigration to Puerto Rico Irish immigration to Puerto Rico Puerto Rican immigration to Hawaii Puerto Rican migration to New York

The Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 is a legal order approved by the Spanish Crown in the early half of the 19th Century to encourage Spaniards and later Europeans of non-Spanish origin to settle and populate the colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Puerto_Rico. ... Unlike other immigrations, the majority of the African immigration to Puerto Rico was a result of the slave trade. ... Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico began in the late 19th Century when the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Chinese immigrants, such as the one pictured, immigrated to Puerto Rico and South America A Chinese Puerto Rican is a person who was born, or resides, in Puerto... In the 19th century hundreds of Corsican families left their homeland, the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea, and emigrated to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. ... The French immigration to Puerto Rico during the 18th and 19th century came about as a result of various economic and political situations which occurred in Louisiana (USA), Saint Domingue (Haiti) and in Europe. ... During the mid-19th century, hundreds of German families fled Europe and immigrated to the New World in search of a better life. ... In the 19th century, there was considerable Irish immigration to Puerto Rico, for a number of reasons. ... The Puerto Rican immigration to Hawaii can be traced to the year 1899, when Puerto Ricos sugar industry was devasted by two hurricanes. ... It can be said that the Puerto Ricans have both immigrated and migrated to New York. ...

External Links

• (Spanish) Actual account of an illegal Dominican migrant
• (English) Same account of illegal immigration to Puerto Rico in English