Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a major commitment to give stateless people living in the United States rights and protections of which they are currently deprived.
The United States is a major provider of humanitarian assistance to the more than 4 million stateless people around the world. Many of these people are fleeing persecution or discrimination due their ethnicity or beliefs, or they are victims of forced displacement, expelled from the only countries they’ve ever known. In losing their home, they also lose their national identity, deprived of the rights conferred by citizenship.
Thus, many stateless people arrive on our shores uprooted and invisible to our bureaucratic system. Because they have no officially recognized nationality, they often lack access to much of the basic documentation, like birth certificates for their children, that allow them and their families to obtain a legal identity, secure an immigration status to apply for permanent residence or citizenship, work, travel, or access government benefits.
The commitments DHS has made today will create a new definition of statelessness for immigration purposes, while identifying and cataloging the barriers stateless people currently face in obtaining immigration relief or benefits. USAID applauds these commitments, and will continue to be an advocate for and source of support for stateless peoples.