SAN FRANCISCO DE MACORÍS.- The Director General of Migration, Vice Admiral Luis Rafael Lee Ballester, ARD, met with provincial and municipal authorities of Moca, Salcedo and this town to coordinate actions for the purpose of opening DGM offices that facilitate interdiction operations, the renewal of work permits and temporary residences offered to national and foreign citizens in each of these demarcations.
The official and high-ranking military officer, in separate meetings, explained the importance of being part of the Zero Bureaucracy program and the decentralization of these services, now concentrated basically in the National District, not only to offer accessible, agile, efficient services with superior quality standards, but also to make the fulfillment of the roles that the laws, the higher authorities and the National Migration Council assign to the DGM more efficient.
“Our goal is to open an immigration office in every province in the country; we have to improve our response capacity in terms of interdiction and strengthen the quality of the portfolio of services we offer to our users,” he said.
He added that these centers will also be used to temporarily hold foreigners in irregular status, while the protocols and process for repatriating them to their countries of origin are followed. Likewise, the documents required to renew the permits granted to regular immigrants residing in the country can be deposited there.
The first meeting, during a tour of the northern Cibao region, took place in the Moca governorate, where Lee Ballester arranged for a place to locate the DGM office. He highlighted the importance of this office, to improve and facilitate the management of immigration issues.
The meeting was attended by the provincial governor of Espaillat, Patricia Muñoz; the commander of the seventh battalion, General Paíno Sánchez, ERD; and the mayors, Miguel Guarocuya, from Moca; Julio Abreu, from El Guanábano; Alberto González, from the Juan López Municipal District; Abelito Suriel, from Gaspar Hernández, and the provincial heads of the Police, Colonel Gabriel de los Santos García, PN, and of DIGESETT-Espaillat, Colonel Luis Manuel Peña, PN.
The provincial governor of Hermanas Mirabal, Lissette Nicasio, participated in the meeting in Salcedo; the senator María Mercedes Ortiz (Mecho), the mayor of Salcedo, Juan Ramón Hernández; the head of the provincial police, colonel René Luna Kunhart, PN; the deputy Félix Hiciano; the former senator Luis René Canaan, the Municipal Director of Jamao Afuera, Juan Ramon Cepeda, and General Paíno Sánchez Perdomo, ERD, commander of the fourth Infantry Brigade based in Mao, among others.
The provincial governor of Duarte, Xiomara Cortés, was present at the meeting in this city; the deputy Yeni Ventura, the police director of San Francisco de Macorís, general Dionisio Natera, PN; the commander of the seventh battalion of the Army, general Paíno Sánchez, ERD, and the director of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, Olmedo Caba.
The authorities of the provinces visited valued the extensions of the DGM to these demarcations as positive and committed to contribute to making them a reality in the shortest possible time.
The head of the DGM thanked the gesture and reiterated that the participation of the authorities of each locality is essential for better migration management.
Communications Department
