PRINTER'S NO. 1722
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
112
Session of
2021
INTRODUCED BY ISAACSON, DELLOSO, HILL-EVANS, HOHENSTEIN, SANCHEZ
AND SCHLOSSBERG, JUNE 8, 2021
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, JUNE 8, 2021
A RESOLUTION
Urging Congress to address statelessness by accepting and
acknowledging the international customary definition of a
stateless person and adopting legislation to protect
stateless persons on United States territory and provide them
the right to adjust status and a path to citizenship.
WHEREAS, An individual's citizenship or nationality is
generally determined based on the laws of the country in which
they were born or the nationality of the individual's parents;
and
WHEREAS, A "stateless person" is a person who is not
considered as a national by any state under the operation of its
law; and
WHEREAS, Statelessness can be caused by numerous factors,
including failure to properly register newborns, the lack of
financial ability to cover the cost of registration and birth
certificates, customs and traditional attitudes about birth
registration, birth to stateless parents, political change and
transfer of territory, administrative oversights, procedural
problems, conflicts of law between two countries or destruction
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of official records, alteration of nationality during marriage
or the dissolution of marriage between couples from different
countries, targeted discrimination against minorities, laws
restricting acquisition of citizenship, laws restricting the
rights of women to pass on their nationality to their children,
laws relating to children born out of wedlock and during transit
or loss or relinquishment of nationality without first acquiring
another; and
WHEREAS, In 2014, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees estimated there are more than 10 million stateless
persons internationally; and
WHEREAS, A stateless person can and does face numerous
hardships that impact their work and personal life; and
WHEREAS, Without citizenship, stateless people have no legal
protection or right to vote and usually lack access to
education, employment, health care and a multitude of other
fundamental rights; and
WHEREAS, Stateless persons may also experience travel
restrictions, social exclusion and heightened vulnerability to
sexual and physical violence, exploitation, trafficking in
persons, forcible displacement and other abuses; and
WHEREAS, Currently, the United States is estimated to have
more than 200,000 stateless people and does not make
determinations about whether someone is stateless; and
WHEREAS, If a person is stateless, there is no benefit or
status provided to them under Federal law; and
WHEREAS, If a stateless person in the United States is
ordered removed, they may face an inability to obtain travel
documents, a long-term family separation or the possibility of
being held in immigration detention for months or longer, as
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well as other significant hardships; and
WHEREAS, Because the United States lacks a consistent legal
framework for recognizing statelessness and addressing the
specific political and economic needs of those individuals,
stateless persons in deportation proceedings are often treated
in the same manner as other non-United States citizens, even
though stateless persons have no country to which they can be
deported; and
WHEREAS, Allowing a person to have a nationality, meaning a
legal bond between a person and a country, allows them to have a
sense of identity, belonging and the ability to exercise a wide
range of rights; and
WHEREAS, The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of
Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness outlined the actions necessary to identify and to
reduce statelessness, yet not all states have adopted the
necessary changes to eradicate statelessness; and
WHEREAS, Creating awareness is the first step to preventing
statelessness and mitigating the harm faced by millions of
stateless people; and
WHEREAS, Identifying stateless populations and providing
stateless persons with universal birth registration and other
forms of civil documentation can help minimize the issue; and
WHEREAS, Eliminating discrimination in nationality laws and
building administrative capacity for civil registry would
increase a stateless individual's access to naturalization or
citizenship in a country; and
WHEREAS, Nations such as Spain and France issue residency
permits to those deemed stateless while Sweden grants special
status to foreigners in need of protection who are unable to
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return to their home country; and
WHEREAS, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights explicitly states that "everyone has the right to a
nationality" and allowing for the occurrence of statelessness to
continue directly violates international law; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania urge Congress to address
statelessness by accepting and acknowledging the international
customary definition of a stateless person and adopting
legislation to protect stateless persons on United States
territory and provide them the right to adjust status and a path
to citizenship; and be it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to
the presiding officers of each house of Congress and to each
member of Congress from Pennsylvania.
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