Santo Domingo, June 18 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Acclaimed Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat has lashed out a mass deportations of Haitians in the Dominican Republic as “state-sponsored open season.”

Half a million of legally stateless Haitians could be deported this week, including those who were not even born there, after a court ruled two years ago that Haitian migrants to the island dating back as far as 1929 could be stripped of their citizenship.

Danticat, whose latest novel is called Claire of the Sea Light, told Democracy Now! that the legislation made Haitians vulnerable to both deportation and to violent attacks.

“This law not only gives the Dominican government the power to deport mass amounts of people, but also creates an environment, a civil environment, that’s really hard for people, because, you know, others might feel now that we’ve had an increase of violence against Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent, because it seems like a state-sponsored open season on people who are considered Haitians by the way they look, primarily, or by their Haitian-sounding name,” she said.

Danticat’s comments come amid international outrage and increased scrutiny at the Caribbean nation’s deportations tactics and laws. Earlier this week, Haitians and Dominicans teamed up to protest outside of the Dominican consulate in New York, holding signs with slogans such as “Say No to Racist Violence” and “Ethnic Cleansing.”