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As sugar estates turned to Haiti for seasonal migrant labor, the Haitian population of the Dominican Republic grew rapidly. The census of 1920, conducted by the military government, gave a total of 28,258 Haitians, by 1935 there were 52,657.<ref>''Needed but unwanted: Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Dominican Republic, Pg. 24'' In 1937, Trujillo ordered the massacre of 20,000-25,000 Haitians, citing Haiti's support for Dominican exiles plotting to overthrow his regime. <ref>Jan Kippers Black, ''Politics and development in an unsovereign state'' Pg. 27</ref> This was the result of a new policy which Trujillo called the 'Dominicasation of the frontier.' Place names along the border were changed from [[Haitian Kreyol| Kreyol]] and French to Spanish, the practice of [[Vodou]] was outlawed, quotas were imposed on the percentage of foreign workers companies could hire, and a law was passed preventing Haitian workers from remaining after the sugar harvest.
Althrough [[Trujillo]] sought to emulate [[Generalissimo]] [[Francisco Franco]], he welcomed [[Spanish Second Republic|Republican]] refugees following the [[Spanish Civil War]]. During the European [[the Holocaust|Holocaust]] in the [[World War II|Second World War]], the Dominican Republic took in many Jews fleeing Hitler who had been refused entry by other countries. These decision arose from a policy of ''blanquismo,'' closely connected with anti-Haitian xenophobia, which sought to whiten the Dominican population by promoting immigration from [[Europe]]. As part of the [[Good Neighbor Policy]], in 1940, the [[U.S. State Department|State Department]] signed a treaty with Trujillo relinquishing control over the nations customs. When the Japanese attacked [[Pearl Harbor]] Trujillo followed the U.S. in declaring war on the [[Axis powers]], even though he had openly professed admiration for [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]. During the [[Cold War]], he maintained close ties to the U.S. by declaring himself the preeminent anti-communist in the Western Hemisphere, providing sanctuary for [[Fulgencio Batista]] after the [[Cuban revolution]].
Trujillo and his family established a near-monoply over the national economy. By the time of his death, he had accumulated a fortune of around $800 million; he and his family owned 50-60 percent of the arable land (some 700,000 acres), and Trujillo-owned businesses accounted for 80% commercial activity in the capital.<ref>Howard Wirada ''The Dominican Republic: A Nation in Transition'', Pg. 40-41</ref> He operated monopolies on sugar, salt, rice, milk, cement, insurance, tobacco, coffee, and insurance; owned two large banks, hotels, sugar refineries, port facilities, an airline and shipping line; deducted 10% of all public employees' salaries (ostensibly for his party); and received a portion of prostitution revenues. <ref>Jared Diamond, Collapse, 'One Island, Two Peoples, Two Histories' (Penguin Books: New York and London, 2005) Pg. 337</ref> World War II brought increased demand for Dominican exports, and the 1940's and early 1950's witnessed economic growth and considerable expansion of the nations infrastructure, although 'it was hardly coincidental that new roads often led to Trujillo's plantations and factories, and new harbors benefited Trujillo's shiping and export enterprises.'<ref>Jan Kippers Black, ''The Dominican Republic: politics and development in an unsovereign state'' Pg. 27</ref> Trujillo transformed [[Santo Domingo]] from merely an administrative center to the national center of shipping and industry. Mismanagement and corruption resulted in major economic problems. By the beginning of the 1960's, the economy had begun to deteriorate due to a combination of overspending on a festival to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the regime, overspending to buy privately owned sugar mills and electricity plants, and a decision to make a major investment in state sugar production that proved economically unsuccessful.
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