Venancio Alcantara Valdez, director general of migration for the Dominican Republic, had announced measures to deport 71 undocumented Haitians who allegedly assaulted security personnel on Friday when they were being subjected to routine checks in the province of La Altagracia.

The director general added that a group of illegal Haitians who attacked National Police officers fled before being apprehended.

He said that the General Direction of Migration’s Interdiction squad had stopped a bus that was traveling through the Punta Cana traffic circle. When the bus was stopped, migration officials said that there were numerous illegal Haitians on board, who began hurling stones at the migration officials and police officers who were involved in the operation in the Punta Cana area.

Following the event, 78 Haitians were seized by police, who stated that 71 of them would be deported and the other seven would be brought before a court on charges of altering the order on a public road and breaking the law regarding migration in the Dominican territory.

The country’s migration authority claimed to have video footage of what transpired and issued a warning that it would not tolerate changes to the law governing migration in the nation.