[I]t is sociological, because, among other things, it involves the existence of a set of historical, linguistic, racial and geopolitical traits, that shape and sustain particular idiosyncrasies and collective aspirations…718 Nevertheless, the court concluded that because the civil registration “deficiencies” it sought to correct affect citizens as well as foreigners, its orders were not discriminatory.719 Since the ruling, the Dominican Republic has expelled, through force or coercion, approximately 80,000 affected persons as of November 2018.720 Approximately 19,000 others have acquired recognition of a statutory form of Dominican nationality that grants them fewer rights and is arbitrarily based on their names being recorded in the country’s “deficient” civil registry rolls.721 Thousands more eke out a threatened existence in makeshift camps along the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.722 It is not difficult to envision such as scenario unfolding in the United States. A study of ending birthright citizenship estimated that a non-retroactive denial of jus soli citizenship targeting only children of unauthorized immigrants would create a population of 13.5 million native-born children without a status in the country by 2050.723 Many of these children would be stateless, making deportation an extremely resource-intensive and morally offensive endeavor.724 Statelessness could arise, for example, in the case of children born out of wedlock in the U.S. to undocumented parents whose country of nationality discriminates based on gender or legitimacy or both.725 Long periods away from the territory of a state can trigger involuntary loss of nationality in many countries, which would leave parents unable to pass nationality to their U.S.-born children.726 Other countries impose registration and residency requirements in order for children born abroad to access their parent’s nationality.727 Children of refugees would struggle immensely to establish a link with their parent’s country of nationality. The U.S. lacks a statelessness status determination process or a protection status, let alone a pathway to citizenship, for stateless people.728 It is likely that statelessness would spread as a long-term and intergenerational condition, creating what one academic termed a “permanent underclass” of undeportable non-citizens.729 As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the United States is bound to uphold the rights of children to acquire a nationality immediately after birth. The U.S. also undertook to institute positive measures to guarantee the enjoyment of rights under the covenant (Article 2(2)), including specific measures that may be necessary to safeguard the rights of children to acquire a nationality at birth (Article 2(1)). In the event that access to citizenship by birth on the territory is restricted in any way, these obligations would require the U.S. to first determine any ensuing risk of childhood statelessness and then ensure that no child is left stateless as a result of such a policy, including by granting U.S. nationality to children born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless. IV. Political attacks on citizenship by birth in the united states 159