Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 53 (2021)
Ghosts in America: Working Towards Building a Legal Framework for
Stateless Individuals in the United States
B) Countries that have adopted Statelessness Determination Procedures
.............................................................................................................. 372
C) Countries That Could Do More ............................................................ 373
Part Three: Statelessness in the United States .......................... 375
A) Statelessness under United States Immigration Law ............................ 375
B) Current approaches to statelessness ...................................................... 380
1) “Recalcitrant” countries and visa sanctions.................................... 381
2) Order of supervision ........................................................................ 383
3) Repatriation agreements.................................................................. 385
Part Four: Policy Recommendations for the United States ....... 388
A) A New State for the Stateless ................................................................ 390
B) Indefinite Detention............................................................................... 393
C) A Legislative Solution ............................................................................ 394
D) A Needs-Focused Solution ..................................................................... 396
1) Legal status...................................................................................... 397
2) A release from psychological, emotional, and mental insecurity .... 397
3) Economic Stability .......................................................................... 398
4) Freedom to Travel ........................................................................... 399
Conclusion ...................................................................................... 399
Introduction
There are “ghosts” living in the United States. 1 And they present
an intractable problem for both the international community and the
United States. “Ghosts” are refugees in a foreign country who have no
country to call home. 2 “Ghosts” is an appropriate name for these
individuals because they and their needs are invisible to the States they
live in and the international community as a whole.
Tatianna Lesnikova is one of these ghosts. 3 In 1992, Tatianna and
her son David fled Ukraine because she feared for her son’s safety under
1.
See U.N. High Comm’r for Refugees (UNHCR), Helping the World’s
Stateless People, at 2 (Sept. 2011) [hereinafter Helping the World’s
Stateless People].
2.
See id. at 4.
3.
U.N. High Comm’r For Refugees Wash., Statelessness in the United
States: Searching for Citizenship, YOUTUBE (Oct. 10, 2016),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=37&v=1LO78hivXZ8
[https://perma.cc/6WK7-588Q] [hereinafter Statelessness in the United
States]; Shaminder Dulai & Moises Mendoza, Stateless: The Ultimate
Legal
Limbo,
NEWSWEEK
(Apr.
10,
2015,
6:36
AM),
https://www.newsweek.com/stateless-ultimate-legal-limbo-319461
[https://perma.cc/A8QN-NXW5]; U.N. High Comm’r for Refugees &
Open Soc’y Just. Initiative, Citizens of Nowhere Solutions for the Stateless
in the U.S., at 1 (Dec. 2012) [hereinafter Citizens of Nowhere].
358