Dominican Consul Revokes Merit From Junot Díaz, Calls Him 'Anti-Dominican'

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz was called “anti-Dominican” on Thursday by Eduardo Selman, the Dominican Republic’s consul in New York, and was revoke of an Order of Merit medal he was given in 2009. The writer of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," has come under fire for protesting against the Dominican government’s moves to deport hundreds of thousands of people of Haitian descent.

“We declare emphatically that the Dominican Republic has acted with transparency to the world in the implementation of the migratory measures and there has been no case of violation of human rights or of statelessness with Haitians or any other foreigner, contrary to what the writer Junot Diaz, who has proven to be anti-Dominican,” Selman said. The Dominican government has ordered all undocumented immigrants to register or face immediate deportation.

Díaz lobbied against the deportations in Washington, D.C., last week alongside Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat saying that the situation represents a “human rights crisis."