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
authorization and the spouse or child of a recipient of conditional lawful
status could also qualify for conditional lawful status if they met certain
criteria. 305 Then in 2013, the bipartisan Border Security, Economic
Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) was
introduced in Congress, which included provisions that would have
incorporated stateless individuals into United States immigration
law. 306 The proposal included: a legal definition of stateless person that
would be incorporated into the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA);
an application procedure, which includes eligibility criteria, exclusions
and waivers, rules for employment authorization, and derivative
beneficiaries; considerations for stateless persons to adjust status to
Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR); some information about
evidentiary considerations; and provisions establishing rules for
administrative review, reopening proceedings, and judicial review. 307
A)
A New State for the Stateless
The first recommendation is the creation and addition of a new
state (with a lower case “s”) in the United States for the stateless. This
“51st” state would accept all stateless individuals who were not granted
asylum and provide them with shelter and means of living. 308 The state
would be governed by a local state government and be part of the
federal United States government, the same as our current 50 states.309
The United States Constitution grants general state-creation
powers to Congress in Article IV, Section 3, under the Admissions
Clause. 310 The clause states, “New States may be admitted by the
Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be forced or erected
within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by
the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the
Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the
Congress.” 311 While the creation of a new state in the United States is
305. Id.
306. Corgan, supra note 18; Baluarte, supra note 20, at 353.
307. Baluarte, supra note 20, at 372.
308. See VIK SASI, WORLD REFUGEE AGENCY, FEASIBILITY STUDY:
SACROSANCTUARY, A STATE FOR THE STATELESS PRELIMINARY
REPORT 3 (2019).
309. See Admission of and the Rights of New States: Doctrine and Practice,
ANNOTATED,
CONST.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artIV-S3-C1-1-12/ALDE_00001171/ [https://perma.cc/Q7WD-GHRB].
310. U.S. CONST. art. IV, §3.
311. Id.
390