Workers of Haitian descent held protests in the Dominican Republic Thursday after a deadline passed for them to register their presence or risk mass deportation. Half a million people could be sent to Haiti under a ruling that stripped the citizenship of children born to Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic as far back as 1929, retroactively leaving tens of thousands stateless.

Protester 1: “It is an abuse. It is a threat to deport them, because their family is here, raised here. And they are Dominicans, as you are, because they were born here. What we want is protection for them.”

Protester 2: “After all the years spent here, I have nothing in Haiti. What I want is to stay here, because this is where I’ll receive my pension. I will not collect pension in Haiti.”

State officials say they will begin patrolling migrant neighborhoods to look for those who have not registered. The Dominican Republic’s decision to denationalize hundreds of thousands of people has sparked an international outcry.