STATELESSNESS AND DETENTION IN THE UNITED STATES (FROM CITIZENS OF NOWHERE): Viktorya N., a woman with a thriving small business in California, came to the United States in 1990 from the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the former Soviet Union. Following a final order of removal against her, she was detained, but her removal order could not be executed because the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and neither Russia nor Ukraine would recognize her as a national. She remained in detention for three months and experienced significant trauma—not only by her detention but also by the great uncertainty of what would happen to her and where she might be sent. …She was eventually released but continues to face restrictions in her daily life and entrepreneurial endeavours based on the requirements of the order of supervision that her release is contingent on.341 As Viktorya N.’s story illustrates, the United States is willing to seek the deportation of individuals who are stateless, including to countries to which the person has no ties.342 In denaturalization case documents reviewed for this report, the U.S. government states that when a person is denaturalized, the U.S. will order that person be removed “to [named country] or any other country that will accept the defendant.”343 In practice, “it is rare that any country other than the country of citizenship will accept an individual who has been ordered removed from the United States.”344 The United States government does not consider whether the individual targeted for denaturalization is stateless or is at-risk of stateless as a result. Based on the denaturalization court records reviewed for this report, the government does not make any effort to establish whether the defendant holds the nationality of his or her country of origin, or any other country to which the individual has relevant links. Outside the courtroom, the United States government openly acknowledges that denaturalization can lead to statelessness. The State Department notes that denaturalization can “result in statelessness if the person does not possess or acquire another nationality,” and “[r]evocation procedures may take place…even if the individual in question is thereby rendered stateless.”345 As a country that strips citizenship and makes people stateless, the United States is betraying the moral principles expressed in Trop v. Dulles that it is “a punishment more primitive than torture.”346 In allowing denaturalization to lead to statelessness, the U.S. is ignoring the link II. Denaturalization: A Radical Measure in the Hands of Zealots 81