Members of the South Florida Haitian community were joined by Dominican Americans and supporters on Thursday in a protest rally against the mass deportation of Haitians from the Dominican Republican.

Demonstrators at the rally expressed outrage against the prospect of Haitians and their descendants being deported to Haiti by the Dominican Republic, which they called a humanitarian crisis.

"We are saying no to mass deportation. No to de-naturalization and yes to a path to citizenship," Haitian activist Marleine Bastien told NBC South Florida.

During the rally, protesters marched from the Dominican Consulate to the Haitian Consulate and then back to the Dominican Consulate in Miami.

The group is protesting a 2013 law in the Dominican Republic that would force hundreds of thousands of people of mostly Dominicans of either Haitian descent out of the D.R. Under the law, immigrants are offered a path to legal residency and eventually citizenship if they were registered by June 17. However, D.R. officials say that those who missed deadline will be deported regardless of where they are born.

According to protesters, the law was designed to backfire on Haitians because many of them have not been able to register with immigration authorities.

"Since they've never had papers in the first place, they've never had birth certificates, it's impossible for them to prove that they've been living in the country, born in the country... as far back as 1940," Bastien explained.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of Haitians or Dominicans of Haitian descent who could not prove that they were born in the D.R. are in jeopardy of being deported to Haiti.

"The Dominican government claims they are not conducting mass deportations; however it's paying buses to take people across the border," Bastien said.

Because of the 2013 Dominican Constitutional Court ruling -- which states that citizenship would no longer would be granted to people in the Dominican Republican -- the generations of Haitians who were brought to the D.R. to do blue-collar labor, suddenly found themselves with a home.

"Haiti took care of them for years. Now they treat us like dogs! They treat my brothers and my sisters like they are nothing!" Jeanette Pubien yelled at the rally, reports the Miami Herald. "Those people are criminals. Why don't they deport the Haitians in the Dominican Republic who have money? They deport the poor ones who are looking for peace for their kids."

"This is a violation of human rights," said Erick Paulino, who is studying at Indiana University. "As a Dominican of conscience, I have to stand here and denounce my government because it's exercising ultra-nationalist xenophobia and racism."