More than 36,000 Dominicans have been deported since 1996, when then President Clinton signed into law the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. Dominicans constitute 25 percent of the incarcerated population in New York State.

These figures come from the report, "Deported, Dominican and Human," conducted by the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights (NMCIR), in collaboration with the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University Law School.

The majority of Dominicans who are deported have committed crimes, often minor ones, including crimes committed many years ago and mostly related to traffic violations or drug consumption.

These deportations profoundly affect Washington Heights, the neighborhood in northern Manhattan where the greatest numbers of Dominicans in the city are concentrated, and which the report labels: "the Ground Zero of deportations."

More than one million Dominicans live in the United States, according to data provided by the NMCIR and based on the Census Bureau. A total of 617,901 Dominicans live in New York State and 554,638 live in the city, out of which an estimated 200,000 live in Washington Heights. New Jersey is the state with the second highest number of Dominicans at 136,529.

"Apart from other immigrant groups, many deported Dominicans are permanent residents and have lived in this country on average for 20 years," said Connie Tse, of the Immigrant Rights Clinic, yesterday.

Ryan Shanovic, also from the Immigrant Rights Clinic, denounced the continuing deportation process; when deported individuals arrive in the Dominican Republic, they face discrimination. "They face the stigma of being a deported criminal and the only companies that will hire them are American ones," he said.

"This is a problem that the whole world contributes to and everyone can do something about," said Nancy Morawetz, professor of Clinical Law at NYU, referring to the United States, New York and the Dominican government.

Raquel Batista, executive director of the NMCIR, echoed a worry highlighted in the report: deported individuals will not appear in the next Census "and this will deprive their community of important services and aid, not to mention the separation and loss of family income."

The report's recommendations for the city and New York State include: removal of immigration agents from Rikers Island, where they arrive without warning and interrogate incarcerated individuals who are unaware of their situation, to find out their immigration status; the elimination of the warnings given the detained while in court about the consequences of their immigration status, which could lead them admit to being guilty of a crime; the recommendation to the Dominican government to not register deported individuals as criminals, but to help them reintegrate; and the request that Dominican diplomatic representatives protect the rights of immigrants abroad during the process of criminal prosecution.