Ethiopis is co-founder of United Stateless. He lives in the DC area.
Until recently, I managed eight gas stations in the greater DC area, seven days a week. I am a classic example of this country’s dependence on workers from other countries. For over 20 years I worked 13-hour days and took shifts when someone called in sick. Double shifts were the order of the day. Sometimes I worked 36 hours straight. I trained the employees and often mentored them. Many of my employees were new to the country themselves and I helped them get settled. I have helped many of them figure out how to change jobs or go to school.
When the pandemic hit, another company approached me. They offered me the opportunity to buy my own gas station and be my own boss. It was very exciting, but I couldn’t bring it up with her. The reason is that I’m stuck in a weird legal limbo called “statelessness”. So I’m not getting the papers I need to run my own business, even though I’ve been trying for more than 20 years.
Statelessness is a strange thing. Being stateless means that no country will claim us as citizens. We don’t belong anywhere. There are millions of stateless people around the world and we all have our own stories. However, it is estimated that there are only about two soccer stadiums of ours in America. I mean around 200,000 people.
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In my case I was born in Ethiopia but because my father was born in neighboring Eritrea I was unlucky. A bloody war has been raging between the two countries since the 1990s. Because of my Eritrean blood, the Ethiopians tortured me in prison for three months. When I got out of prison, I fled the country. And I’ve been trying to sort out my legal status since I got here in America. I even went to the Ethiopian embassy and asked them for an Ethiopian passport, but they said to me: “No.” And it is clear that if I go back to Ethiopia, death is waiting. I’m stuck between a rock and a stuck hard place.
International human rights law states that every person has the right to be a citizen of any country. Yet in the US there is no way for stateless people to legalize our status. In 2021, the US Department of Homeland Security announced a new commitment to “adopt a definition of statelessness.” Last year, US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas reaffirmed the commitment during an appearance on PBS NewsHour. He wanted to keep them this year. But we’re still waiting. By taking such a simple step, authorities could extend a lifeline for thousands of people caught in legal limbo, including me. It just hasn’t happened yet. Meanwhile, I am unable to build a full life here in the United States. I would love to be able to take advantage of opportunities like the ones I had to start my own business. But I can not. I also find it unfair to a woman if I would start a relationship with her because I can’t offer her my nationality, I don’t have any.
Most people don’t know about statelessness, but when they hear about it, they want to help. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) recently passed legislation regularizing the status of a stateless person. Rebecca Trimble has spent her life living the American dream and raising a family in Alaska. Then she was threatened with deportation to a country unknown to her. It happened because she was technically stateless, although she didn’t know it. I’m so glad the two senators stepped in.
Another stateless Houston soldier was recently granted citizenship after a protracted legal battle. He fell into stateless limbo, despite being born in New York and issuing a passport at birth. It’s a strange situation that can happen to anyone, especially during geopolitical events that are beyond people’s control.
If you were born in the recently Russian-occupied part of Ukraine, you cannot go back there either. You can become stateless. It would be so much more efficient to take care of this issue quickly rather than by one person at a time. Now two congressmen, US Senator Ben Cardin and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) have acted. Their Stateless Protection Act would regulate the status of stateless people in America. I hope she gets the bipartisan support she deserves.
I would have liked to contribute to Ethiopia’s economy back home. I would love nothing more than to own my own business here in America and to contribute to the American Dream. But until we find an administrative solution to statelessness, this country will be missing out.
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