The report finds that the population in the United States that is potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness is larger and more diverse than previously assumed, albeit with the caveat that severe data limitations make it impossible to provide precise estimates of this population. Stateless determinations require individual screening, which the study could not undertake. Individuals deemed potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness in this report may in fact have been able to secure nationality in their home countries or in third countries. They may also be on a path to citizenship in the United States, although nobody in CMS’s estimates had yet to obtain US citizenship. According to CMS’s analysis, roughly 218,000 US residents are potentially stateless or potentially at risk of statelessness. These groups live in all 50 states,2 with the largest populations in California (20,600), New York (18,500), Texas (15,200), Ohio (13,200), Minnesota (11,200), Illinois (8,600), Pennsylvania (8,200), Wisconsin (7,300), Georgia (6,600), and Virginia (6,500) (Chart 2). The report recommends ways to improve data collection and, thus, to develop better estimates in the future. It also lifts up the voices and challenges of stateless persons, and outlines steps to reduce statelessness and to safeguard the rights of stateless persons in the United States. As it stands, the paucity of reliable federal data on the stateless, the lack of a designated path to legal status for them under US law, and the indifference of government agencies contribute to the vulnerability and isolation of these populations. The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons [“the 1954 Convention”] defines a “stateless person” as “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.”3 This definition – which has acquired customary law status according to the International Law Commission (ILC 2006, 36) – refers to the de jure stateless (those stateless by law), in contrast to the de facto stateless, a term not defined by treaty or international instrument (UNHCR 2014g, 5).4 The 1954 Convention also enumerates obligations and responsibilities of Contracting States and stateless persons, and the rights of the stateless.5 The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness [“the 1961 Convention”] seeks to prevent statelessness by establishing “international norms relating to nationality” and, thus, to reduce statelessness over time.6 In particular, it requires states “to grant citizenship to children born on their territory, or born to their nationals abroad, who would otherwise be stateless.”7 It also prohibits “the withdrawal of citizenship from States’ nationals – either through loss, renunciation, or deprivation of nationality – when doing so would result in statelessness.”8 The 1961 Convention was drafted with the understanding that states “maintain the right to elaborate the content of 2 CMS derived these estimates from the American Community Survey 3 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, art. 1(1), Sept. 28, 1954, 360 U.N.T.S. 117. 4 A UNHCR publication sets forth a working definition of the de facto stateless as “persons outside the country of their nationality who are unable or, for valid reasons, are unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country” (Massey 2010, 61). 5 In particular, the 1954 Convention provides for free access to courts of law, work, entrepreneurship, housing, elementary education, labor rights, choice of place of residence, free movement within the contracting country, identity papers, travel documents, assimilation and naturalization. 6 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, Introductory Note, Aug. 30, 1961, 989 U.N.T.S. 175. 7 Id. 8 Id. 2