SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Dominican immigrants face police brutality, discrimination and other rights abuses on a daily basis in Puerto Rico, a Dominican diplomat said Sunday on the island, where many migrants come seeking jobs or a path to the U.S. mainland.
The number of abuses has risen as more migrants cross the 80-mile (30-kilometer) strait from the Dominican Republic to the more affluent U.S. territory, Dominican Vice Consul Franklin Grullon told The Associated Press.
"I don't believe it's the policy of government institutions, but it could be that some of the officers have something against immigrants," said Grullon, who plans to take his concerns to Puerto Rico's attorney general.
Fifteen recent cases of police beating Dominican migrants were outlined in a report the consulate submitted to Puerto Rico's Senate this month.
Police detained victims on the street and took them to federal authorities for deportation, even though they are not tasked with enforcing immigration laws, Grullon said.
The Puerto Rican Police Department insists it tolerates no abuse. Spokesman Stephen Alvarez said Dominican community groups have publicized similar complaints in the past without providing evidence.
Still, nine island police officers have been indicted since July on unrelated abuse charges, including allegedly beating suspects, and more than a dozen have been accused of planting drugs on low-income residents they then arrested.
On Saturday, dozens of people marched through colonial Old San Juan in a protest organized by a Dominican rights group to denounce police brutality.
Jose Rodriguez, a spokesman for the group, accused police of illegally raiding poor neighborhoods across the capital in search of undocumented migrants.
Puerto Rico's Dominican population has grown dramatically to more than 80,000, and is now the largest foreign-born group on the island of 4 million.
New arrivals work low-paying jobs in construction, coffee-picking and domestic service or use Puerto Rico as a stepping stone to the U.S. mainland.
Still, migration has slowed in recent years with the island's economy, while the Dominican Republic has recovered from a banking crisis that drove many into poverty.
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