Fisher: Citizenship, Federalism, and Delayed Birth Registration 2024] C ITIZENSHIP, F EDERALISM, AND DELAYED BIRTH R EGISTRATION 79 because they are unvaccinated, this would not make them stateless, because the reason for denial is unrelated to their citizenship status. Similarly, a person denied a job or a bank account for a lack of social security number would not suffice, because the entities denying access to a given benefit are private actors. But when a U.S. government agency denies a person a social security number, passport, or other privilege of U.S. citizenship, that would demonstrate that the U.S. government does not consider the person as its citizen. If no other government recognizes the person as a citizen, the person would be stateless. The experiences of people who lack birth registration show that at least some of them are stateless, with many noting particularly the exclusion created by the lack of a social security number. 171 Many of them had sought to register their births and spent years attempting to secure documentation of their identity, with several of their situations unresolved even after these efforts. These experiences are similar to those of stateless people born outside the United States, particularly in challenges navigating bureaucratic situations that require proof of legal identity and challenges obtaining employment because of a lack of work authorization. 172 This exploration of people who lack birth registration demonstrates that individuals born in the United States may experience statelessness. It may be only small numbers of people who lack birth registration and experience these forms of exclusion, but these individuals nonetheless experience great hardship. VI. CONCLUSION In Yusuf Idris’ classic short story “Death from Old Age,” the registrar issued birth certificates, “ma[king] regular citizens, recognized by the state, out of new-born infants.” 173 The story is astute in observing the dual function of birth registration: to document the facts of birth and to ensure state recognition of the legal identity and citizenship of 171. See supra Part III.A. 172. C TR. FOR MIGRATION S TUD., supra note 161, at 68–73; see also Betsy L. Fisher, Discretion in Immigration Law: A Partial Remedy for Stateless People in the United States, 15 NE. U. L. R EV. 359 (2023). 173. IDRIS, supra note 1, at 123. Published by IdeaExchange@UAkron, 2025 31