Join United Stateless (USL) for a virtual briefing recorded Wednesday, July 26th, with remarks from Senator Ben Cardin and Congressman Jamie Raskin on the reintroduction of their Stateless Protection Act (SPA).
We followed their remarks with a screening of a new 10-minute film (produced by film production company 'What Took You So Long?' and directed by Alicia Sully), a panel discussion featuring stateless persons in the U.S., and the opportunity for Q&A.
Panelists:
Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough, USL Executive Director
Smita Dazzo, HIAS Vice President of Legal and Asylum
Phil Huang, USL Board Member & Entrepreneur
Martine Kalaw, USL Member & CEO & Founder of Martine Kalaw Enterprises
A stateless person is someone who no country will claim as a citizen. They may have been born in a country that no longer exists. They may have been born in a country that does not recognize birthright citizenship, like the United States does. There are more than 200,000 stateless persons in the United States—they call our country home, are parents and spouses to Americans, and loyal employees of American companies—but current law does not provide any permanent U.S. status on the grounds of statelessness.
Senator Ben Cardin and Representative Jamie Raskin introduced the Stateless Protection Act (“SPA”) to address this gap in U.S. law. The SPA (S.5330/H.R.9671) would allow stateless persons in the United States to get green cards and eventually citizenship, subject to passing the usual criminal background checks and other requirements.
This is a unique opportunity to learn more about the important work that United Stateless is doing and to engage in a meaningful conversation about how we can make a difference in the lives of those impacted by statelessness.