Danah Abdulaziz
Founding Member
United Stateless
Danah Abdulaziz was born stateless. Ms. Abdulaziz was born in Kuwait and came to New York at age three. Ms. Abdulaziz is currently pursuing a degree in business administration and works in the e-commerce industry.
Daniela Alulema
Director of Programs
Center for Migration Studies
Daniela Alulema is the director of programs for the Center for Migration Studies (CMS). As part of her work at CMS, Daniela has organized CMS’s research projects on the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the impact of deportation on US communities, and statelessness. She understands from experience the need for cohesive and informed responses to advance pro-immigrant policies. In 2015, Daniela received her Master of Science in the Urban Policy Analysis and Management Program at The New School. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Baruch College, CUNY in 2007. Daniela currently serves as a board member in the New York State Youth Leadership Council, an undocumented youth-led organization that empowers immigrant youth through leadership development and organizing.
Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough
Founding Member
United Stateless
Karina Ambartsoumian Clough is of Armenian and Ukrainian descent born in the former Ukraine SSR. Stateless since the age of 4 years old and married to a US citizen, Karina has sought a path to citizenship within the USA immigration system but with little progress and solution has turned to advocacy. In 2018, Karina co-founded United Stateless a stateless led national organization whose mission is to build and inspire community among those affected by statelessness and advocate for their human rights. Through advocacy, education, community building and story sharing, United Stateless seeks for the US government to adhere to the United Nations 1954 and 1961 Conventions in regards to Stateless people.
David Baluarte
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Clinical Professor of Law
Washington and Lee University School of Law
David Baluarte is an Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he serves as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic. Baluarte has authored numerous journal articles on statelessness protection and speaks widely on this issue. He is the author of the 2015 article “Life after Limbo: Stateless Persons in the United States and the Role of International Protection in Achieving a Legal Solution,” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Vol. 29, Issue 3. He has served as the lead researcher and project director for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on a variety of initiatives to identify and protect stateless persons in the United States and the Caribbean. Most notably, he conducted a study of statelessness in the US that led to the publication of the UNHCR and Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) report Citizens of Nowhere, and he subsequently established a pilot law clinic to provide pro bono legal services to stateless persons in the US. Baluarte also directed a UNHCR funded project to establish a nationality rights clinic in The Bahamas, and served as co-counsel on two cases decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the Dominican Republic on the issue of nationality rights and statelessness.
Laura Bingham
Senior Managing Legal Officer, Equality and Inclusion
Open Society Justice Initiative
Laura Bingham is currently the senior managing legal officer for equality and inclusion in the Open Society Justice Initiative. Bingham leads the program’s work on equality and nondiscrimination, focusing on access to effective remedies for structural discrimination in Europe, and on the right to nationality and access to documentation of identity, comprising litigation, legal empowerment, research, and advocacy worldwide. Prior to joining the Open Society Foundations, Bingham practiced international civil litigation and arbitration, served as a law clerk in U.S. federal district court, and held positions at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the U. S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Bingham has taught and published in the fields of international justice, strategic litigation, citizenship, and statelessness and is an adjunct faculty member at New York University’s MS program in global affairs. Bingham received a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in human rights law from Central European University in Budapest.
Lindsay Jenkins
Protection Officer
UNHCR Regional Office for the USA and the Caribbean
Lindsay Jenkins is a Protection Officer with the Protection and Solutions Unit of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Regional Office in Washington, D.C. Her work covers a range of protection issues in the United States, including the response to forced displacement in and from the North of Central America, capacity-building, access to asylum, detention/alternatives to detention for asylum-seekers and statelessness. Lindsay also completed a short-term assignment with UNHCR Lebanon, where she assisted in setting up a temporary humanitarian admissions program for Syrian refugees. Prior to joining UNHCR, Lindsay provided legal orientation and representation to adults and families held in U.S. immigration detention. She holds a joint JD/MA degree in Law and International Affairs from American University and a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. Her pre-law career includes service as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras. She speaks Spanish and is a member of the New York Bar.
Donald Kerwin
Executive Director
Center for Migration Studies
Donald Kerwin has directed the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) since September 2011. He also serves as the Executive Editor of CMS’s Journal on Migration and Human Security. He previously worked for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) between 1992 and 2008, serving as its Executive Director (ED) for 15 years and its interim ED in late 2012 and early 2013. Upon his arrival at CLINIC in 1992, Mr. Kerwin worked on the agency’s political asylum project for Haitians. CLINIC, a subsidiary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), is a public interest legal corporation that supports a national network of several hundred charitable legal programs for immigrants. Between 2008 and 2011, Mr. Kerwin served as Vice-President for Programs at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), where he has also served as a senior visiting fellow. Mr. Kerwin has served on numerous boards, commissions, and advisory groups. He writes and speaks extensively on immigration policy, refugee protection, access to justice, national security, and other issues.
Mike Nicholson
Researcher
Center for Migration Studies
Mike Nicholson is a researcher at the Center for Migration Studies. Previously, Mr. Nicholson worked as a research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and as a consultant for the Center for American Progress. He has also held internships at the Migration Policy Institute’s Transatlantic Council on Migration and at the US Department of State. Mr. Nicholson holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and received a PhD in political science from the University of California, San Diego in June 2018. While a doctoral candidate, he was an INTEGRIM Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and a ThinkSwiss fellow at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where he conducted a study on immigrants’ political engagement. From 2005-2006, also, he was a Fulbright scholar in Istanbul, Turkey.
Robert Warren
Senior Visiting Fellow
Center for Migration Studies
Robert Warren is a senior visiting fellow at the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS). He served as a demographer for 34 years with the United States Census Bureau and the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), serving as the director of INS’s Statistics Division from 1986 to 1995. One of his accomplishments at INS was to project accurate ranges of the number of unauthorized immigrants that would apply in each state under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). Mr. Warren has testified before Congress concerning the estimation of undocumented immigration and served as an expert witness for the Department of Justice on the issue of educating undocumented children. He was the US representative at United Nations meetings on immigration statistics in Geneva in May 1986 and February 1991, and an advisor to the US Commission on Agricultural Workers in 1992. For three years, Mr. Warren also played professional baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization. He holds a Master of Science from Indiana State University.
