Detention “Stateless persons are also uniquely vulnerable to prolonged detention and States should be sensitized to respect the rights of stateless persons to be free from arbitrary detention as a result of their stateless status”. Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Secretary-General Guidance Note of the Secretary General: The United Nations and Statelessness, June 2011 The majority of stateless people encountered by UNHCR in the United States have a final order of removal issued against them and have therefore spent some period of time in immigration detention awaiting removal from the United States. Most of these individuals have experienced tremendous emotional trauma during detention, including the stress of detention itself, the removal from their daily life, transfers to different immigration detention facilities away from their homes and communities, the uncertainty of how long they will be detained since no country recognizes them, and fears about being sent to a country with which they have no connection. Because stateless individuals have no country that recognizes them as citizens, they are rarely accepted to another country for removal and are often detained beyond the 90-day removal period. For these individuals, their only recourse is often to file a habeas corpus petition with a federal district court, a measure which is time-consuming, difficult for someone without familiarity with U.S. laws, and one that they may only learn about after having spent substantial time in detention. Some stateless individuals are released from detention only to be detained again at a later time,116 often without warning, leaving others remain fearful that this will happen to them. Solutions for the Stateless in the U.S. Detention Takes Its Toll 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.117 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 spent weeks wondering who would take her, knowing that she was not a citizen of any country, and imagining that some country would accept her as a favor to the United States and she would be forced to move there. After several months in detention, she wrote a letter explaining why she believed no country would ever accept her. She was eventually released but continues to face restrictions in her daily life and entrepreneurial endeavors based on the requirements of the order of supervision that her release is contingent upon. Reporting Requirements Stateless persons as well as other individuals with a final order of removal must comply with an order of supervision as a condition of their release from detention.118 Requirements under an order of supervision generally include regular—sometimes monthly or even weekly—in-person reporting to an immigration office which may be as far away as 50 miles or more; no travel outside the individual’s state of residence without a discretionary grant of permission in advance; and the obligation to regularly contact embassies and consulates to request travel documents or permission to enter that country’s territory. In some cases, stateless individuals have been required to wear electronic ankle devices as a means to track and further restrict their every move. Other than the necessity of an or- 25