nationals must still prove their nationality (Halling 2014; US GAO 2004, 11).35 It is impossible to determine statelessness without exhaustive, individual screening. Legal screenings of persons in US detention centers, for example, or of persons who self-identify as undocumented, regularly find persons with derivative citizenship (Wong et al. 2014, 292; MRS/ USCCB and CMS 2015, 163).36 Similar screening programs, particularly of populations in CMS’s profiles, would identify significant numbers of stateless persons. Yet some community groups interviewed for this project, which serve stateless persons, incorrectly believe that this problem no longer exists in their communities. Like US undocumented residents, many stateless people may not realize that they are stateless until they reach a certain age, or they may not realize that they are eligible to pursue legal status and, ultimately, a path to citizenship. The size and diversity of the US foreign-born population suggest that a wide range of people who are potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness may be living in the United States. Such individuals can arrive in the United States as refugees, temporary visa holders or with other temporary statuses, permanent residents, or through irregular channels. CMS identified the following profiles of stateless populations in the United States based on a review of available literature,37 consultations with experts on statelessness, and interviews with stateless persons. As stated, per the 1954 Statelessness Convention, a “stateless person” is defined as someone “who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.” The term “at risk of statelessness” denotes those who have “difficulties furnishing relevant proof to establish their nationality” and who are therefore “at risk of not being considered nationals by a State” (UN 2011, 5). CMS considers members of the groups profiled below to be potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness. Members of these groups may possess the nationality of their country of origin or may have acquired nationality in a third country. They may also be on a path to US citizenship, but have not naturalized. CMS cannot determine the exact likelihood or risk of statelessness for each profile, although some groups are likely to have much higher incidences of statelessness than others. Many stateless people may not realize that they are stateless until they reach a certain age, or they may not realize that they are eligible to pursue legal status and, ultimately, a path to citizenship. 35 Mexico’s 51 consular offices in the United States provide matricula consular (identity) documents, Mexican passports on an expedited basis, and a range of “new generation functions … to empower the Mexican community so they may fully integrate into American society.” (Celorio 2017). Other states, like Guatemala, offer similar core services from a smaller network of consular offices (Consulado General de Guatemala 2019). Mexican consulates also permit Mexican residents in the United States to register childbirths that occurred in Mexico (Consulado General de México en Nueva York 2019). In 2015, Mexican consulates also began to issue birth certificates to Mexicans residing in the United States (Linthicum 2015). On the other extreme, Venezuela has announced the closure of its consular offices in the United States (BBC News World 2019), and at this writing its consular websites are inaccessible. 36 Derivative citizenship is available to persons born abroad on or after February 28, 1983, who are under the age of 18, and who: (1) have at least one US citizen parent at the time of their application; (2) were admitted as LPRs and live in the United States in the custody of their US citizen parent; and, (3) (for adopted children) were adopted through a legally sound process. INA § 320. 37 These profiles and their descriptions draw heavily from Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) (2014), as well as UNHCR “Mapping Stateless” reports and other references cited in the text. 14