What is Life Like When You Don’t Have Citizenship Anywhere?

0:00Today on State of the World, what is life like when you don't have citizenship anywhere?

0:09You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories, up close, where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. More than 200 ,000 people in the United States right now are not only not U.S. citizens, they're not citizens of any country. They're stateless. It makes lots of life's mundane tasks like traveling or opening a bank account difficult to impossible. And with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, many stateless people fear indefinite detention or deportation to a country they have no ties to. NPR's Jacqueline Diaz introduces us to some of them.

0:48In a living room in New Jersey, Karina Arbutzumi and Clow and her husband are showing me their music collection. It's like, OK, these guys, this is like surf rock. From Spain. From Spain. She's been stateless since she was eight, meaning no country recognizes her as a citizen. The sinceres are also kind of like, I'm in the music. The music collection sits in her living room in a home she never thought she'd own. That's because her status makes it difficult to do things like obtain a government ID or open a bank account. And yet last November, she and her husband bought the house we're standing in.

1:23I was like crying, getting emotional in the closing. and then coming here and I was like, oh my God, I own this. M. Bartu Mimklaou is one of more than 218 ,000 stateless people in the United States. That's according to data from the Center for Migration Studies, a think tank that researches international migration. She was born in Ukraine when it was still part of the former Soviet Union. Her parents were looking to escape political and religious persecution after the Iron Curtain fell. So they left a few years later and arrived in the U.S. in 1996. But they were never registered as citizens of Ukraine after it gained independence.

2:03The only way I could prove my identity was my Soviet birth certificate. So now at 37, Mbartoumin Klaou is a lawful permanent U.S. resident, but still considered stateless. According to Laura Bingham, an immigration law expert at Temple University, that means... There's no protection. You're effectively the most vulnerable, undocumented person. For Amber Tumian-Klau, that has meant hiring multiple lawyers to find ways to stay in the U.S. and to do things like get an ID, establish residency, or get married. Others have forged documents to access services or enroll in school. It can all be so complicated.

2:42So in 2018, she co-founded the advocacy group United Stateless. The goal is to provide community and legal help for stateless people like Tanya Furlong. On a sunny July afternoon in M. Bartumi and Klaus' kitchen, Furlong tells me her story over drinks. I spent half of my life in Ukraine and the other half in Russia because my grandparents had custody of me. And when I was 10, my mom said they were going to visit my dad during winter break. But instead of visiting her dad, her mom brought her to the U.S. That was 1990. Like, nobody knew that. Like, I had no papers, even my closest of friends, my boyfriends, because my parents always told me not to tell anybody.

3:24And I had such a fear that I never did. Today, she's in the U.S. on work authorization and checks in regularly with immigration authorities. Bingham, the immigration law expert, says stories of secrecy are common. Your life is constantly lived under a shadow, and that affects so much. She says some of Trump's policies, like revoking naturalized citizens of their status and challenging the 14th Amendment's guarantee of birthright citizenship, could create more stateless people. You just have this risk of indefinite detention. And now that's only amplified in this environment of third country deportations.

4:07She's referring to the Trump administration's policy of deporting people to countries they're not from. United Stateless knows of at least six members who were detained since Trump took office in January. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to NPR's questions on how many stateless people are in its custody. At the House, both women tell me they're thinking about time. In less than a year, Mbartoumi and Klaou will be able to apply for U.S. citizenship. I even have it on my phone. I had the countdown of how many days until I can start, I can submit my paperwork. It's 301 days. For Furlong, it's her next immigration check-in.

4:47Because I have to report in October, and I don't know what's going to happen. She says the prospect of being detained is scary, so she's been having difficult conversations with her husband. Every time I went in, I would tell my husband, okay, I may not come out. and he's like, whatever, you say this every time. Now he knows it's serious this time. But I always go in, like I'm not coming out. Furlong tells me what she takes with her, just in case. It's always three bras, three underwears, three socks, scrunchie that a baby will take with me, no wire in the bra because they won't let you wear, you know, like I'm prepared.

5:25Until October, she says the only thing she can do is be ready for the worst and hope for the best. Jacqueline Diaz, NPR News.

5:39That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.