Recently, the Associated Press released an expose documenting ongoing human rights abuses at the hands of the Dominican government led by President Abinader.

The AP exposed the inhumane conditions within the Dominican Republic’s prison system, where thousands are imprisoned without charges or trials. According to the report:

U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are among these imprisoned. In 2023, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, then Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to Secretary Blinken demanding actions from the Biden administration.

While Blinken’s State Department documented these widespread human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, life-threatening prison conditions, and corrupt judicial and law enforcement practices, they turned a blind eye.

One might then ask: has Rep. Espaillat, the first Dominican American Member of Congress and Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, turned a blind eye, too?  

A crisis years in the making, Rep. Espaillat continues to remain silent, yet to acknowledge the grave human rights violations taking place, including the unlawful detention of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. Many believe this is just an effort to protect the Abinader government.

“When similar injustices occur in other countries, the CHC does not hesitate to speak out—and rightfully so. When American citizens and legal permanent residents are detained abroad, Members of Congress act swiftly to ensure their release. Why should the Dominican Republic be held to a different standard?” said Mario H. Lopez, President of the Hispanic Leadership Fund (HLF) and the Dominican Justice Initiative (DJI), in a letter to Rep. Espaillat.

Rep. Espaillat must answer a simple question: Will he stand up now that President Biden is no longer in office, and he is the representative of the Democrat Hispanic Congressional Caucus?

Now is the time to speak up.

The full letter is available here and copied below.

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Dear Representative Espaillat,

As Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and the first Dominican American Member of Congress, your voice carries weight on issues concerning the Dominican Republic. I write again to ask why you have remained silent while the Dominican government continues to trample on basic human rights and violate the rule of law.

As the Associated Press recently reported. “Thousands of [inmates] are crammed into the country’s severely overcrowded prisons, some operating at seven times their capacity. A majority languish there without ever having been charged with a crime, and activists warn they face inhuman conditions and a lack of medical care.”

AP’s reporting confirms widespread findings from human rights organizations that the Dominican government continues to violate domestic and international law by perpetuating a preventive detention system that has impacted U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

This is not speculation. The Dominican National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH-DR) and the National Public Defense Office (ONDP) have extensively documented the following:

  • 60% of the country’s prison population is being held without charges, trials, or due process—a clear violation of both Dominican law and international human rights standards. Many of these detainees have been imprisoned for years without ever seeing a courtroom.
  • 98% of all coercive measures requested by prosecutors in 2024 resulted in preventive detention—meaning that in nearly every case, individuals were jailed before charges were even filed. This mass incarceration policy directly violates the Dominican Republic’s own criminal procedural law, which states that preventive detention should be the exception, not the rule.
  • Prison conditions are inhumane, with over 26,000 inmates crammed into facilities designed for just 12,000. Firsthand reports confirm that many detainees sleep on urine-soaked floors, suffer from untreated diseases, and endure rampant physical abuse from prison guards—I strongly encourage you to see it for yourself.
  • U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are among those unlawfully detained, yet the Dominican government refuses to account for them. In 2023, Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX) wrote to Secretary Blinken demanding an accounting for U.S. citizens being held in detention. To this day, the Dominican government has not provided transparency on how many Americans are in their prison system.

President Biden’s own State Department released a report confirming widespread human rights violations in the Dominican Republic, including mass expulsions, arbitrary detentions, life-threatening prison conditions, and government corruption. In other words, their government failed to take credible steps to hold human rights abusers accountable.

Even your fellow Democratic colleague Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) has sounded the alarm. In a letter to Secretary Blinken last year, she directly raised concern about the “rampant overcrowding, lack of medical care, and other public health crises” in Dominican prisons—institutions that, as she noted, are “ostensibly funded by the United States government.”

Representative Espaillat, is she wrong about what’s happening in the Dominican Republic, or are you choosing to remain silent?

When similar injustices occur in other countries, the CHC does not hesitate to speak out—and rightfully so. When American citizens and legal permanent residents are detained abroad, Members of Congress act swiftly to ensure their release.

Why should the Dominican Republic be held to a different standard?

As the Chair of the Caucus, you have a duty to represent the interests of all Latinos, including those unjustly detained under a system that disregards basic legal protections. I strongly encourage you to leverage your power and influence to demand answers from the Dominican government.

Silence is not leadership. The time to speak up is now.

Sincerely,

Mario H. Lopez

President, Hispanic Leadership Fund/Dominican Justice Initiative