Rethinking Statelessness from Within ban, citing Haiti’s lack of centralised authority and law enforcement.143 Putting the hypocrisy of the disparate justifications for these policies aside, the suspension demonstrates a punitive approach to the current conditions in Haiti, while simultaneously neglecting the US’ substantial role in creating the conditions preceding these crises of effective citizenship loss. With no democratically elected officials in the entire state, 144 Haitians effectively live in de facto statelessness. Benedicty notes that from the Haitian revolution in 1804 to the present, Haitians ‘have had very little possibility of exercising political agency’, a form of ongoing political disenfranchisement.145 Where Haitians could express their political will through voting, the fulfilment of this core element of citizenship was repressed by Western coloniality. Now, in a state where no elections have taken place since 2016, though its citizens are situated within the boundaries of the Haitian state, the deficiency in effectuating functioning citizenship (eg, via voting) means Haitians are effectively stateless. Belton reaffirms this notion, arguing that statelessness arises from a lack of self-determining agency, and that ‘practices of citizenship denial,’ often in one’s country of birth, play a central role in this condition.146 Voting becomes central to citizenship, both as a means for the state to fulfil its obligations and as means for individuals to shape their world and exercise agency. Thus, the deprivation of this right embodies a core facet of de facto statelessness. The loss of rights associated with formal legal status, such as voting, reflect a greater crisis of belonging and political inefficacy I contend is demonstrative of de facto statelessness. The inability to vote incurs further violence, such as subjugation to substandard living conditions, restricted access to work, education, healthcare and more. Statelessness (whether de facto or de jure) strips individuals of their capacity to ‘live, act and contribute to public life’, and as discussed above, for those displaced by the 2010 earthquake, their existence becomes bound to the charity of their host state.147 A Extractivism and Deforestation as Failed Governance The impact of a lack of voting rights in Haiti is further illustrated in the considerable disconnect between the interests of the Haitian populace and the enacted policies of the Haitian government. Such a disconnect illustrates the ineffectiveness of citizenship for the Haitian populace and the under-fulfilment of duties by the government as related to community, rights fulfilment and access to basic services. Similar to Dupuy’s claim that geologists warned the Haitian government of the possibility of an earthquake and its harms to no avail, a further recurring theme in the failure of the government is deforestation. Today, deforestation in Haiti is motivated by charcoal production, which produces conditions of soil erosion, land degradation and reduction in land 143 Dany Pierre, ‘Trump Expands Travel Ban, Restricting Entry from Haiti and 18 Other Countries’, The Haitian Times (online, 5 June 2025) <https://haitiantimes.com/2025/06/05/trump-travel-ban-2025-haiti/>, archived at <perma.cc/XG24-MBGJ>. 144 Philippe de Bard, ‘In Haiti, as Elsewhere, Elections Alone Are Not the Answer’ Foreign Policy (online, 12 March 2024) <https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/12/haiti-gang-violenceelections-ariel-henry-resignation/>, archived at <perma.cc/9EW9-FMG4>. 145 Benedicty (n 78) 12. 146 Belton (n 38) 917. 147 Kesby (n 132) 59. 147