Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia
Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Center for Immigrants’ Rights ClinicShoba Sivaprasad Wadhia is a nationally respected immigration scholar, law professor, author, and attorney. Wadhia joined Penn State Law as a clinical professor of law in 2008 and was named Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar in 2013. In 2023, Wadhia was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden to serve as the Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and is currently on a leave of absence from Penn State. Reporting to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Wadhia leads an office that supports the Department's mission to secure the nation while preserving individual liberty, fairness, and equality under the law. Wadhia’s scholarship has focused on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and policy as well as the intersection of immigration, race, and national security. Her work has been widely cited and appeared in Duke Law Journal, Emory Law Journal, Texas Law Review, Washington and Lee Law Review, Harvard Latino Law Review, Administrative Law Review, Howard Law Journal, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, University of Colorado Law Review, Cambridge University Press, and Columbia Journal of Race and Law, among others. She is the author of two award-winning academic press books by New York University Press; and a co-author of a textbook on Immigration & Nationality Law by Carolina Academic Press. From 2019-2022, Wadhia served as the inaugural editor-in-chief of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Law Journal and, in 2019, served as the Enlund Scholar In Residence at DePaul University School of Law. She was elected to the American Law Institute in 2021. A seasoned teacher, Wadhia has taught law courses in immigration since 2005 and received the Elmer Fried Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association in 2019. She founded the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic (CIRC) at Penn State Law in 2008. Over the following 15 years, Wadhia has provided hundreds of students with clinical training in community outreach and education, pro bono legal support, and policy work. CIRC was honored with the Excellence in Legal Advocacy Award in 2017 by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Legal Organization of the Year in 2019 by the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center. Reflecting her passion for building community and helping students reach their highest potential, Wadhia received the university-wide W. L. Marr International Faculty Kopp Award in 2023 and the Rosemary Schraer Mentoring Award in 2020; Mimi Barash Coppersmith Women in Leadership Award in 2020 from the Centre Foundation and Arnold Addison Award for Town and Gown Relations in 2019 from the Borough of State College. In 2020, Wadhia was named a Fastcase 50 Awardee, which honors 50 of "the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, & leaders." In 2022, she was a recipient of the President’s Commendation and the Michael Maggio Pro Bono Award by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Wadhia has long worked to advance equity, inclusion, and belonging at Penn State Law, across the University and beyond. In 2014, she helped to create and institutionalize the Minority Mentor Program at Penn State Law. From 2020-2023, Wadhia served as the law school’s associate dean for diversity, equity & inclusion. During her tenure, she served as the co-chair of the university-wide Student Code of Conduct Task Force, co-led the inaugural workshop for Asian American and Pacific Islander Women entering in the legal academy, and led the design of a course on Law and (In)equity. Wadhia is a first-generation American and lawyer who began her career as an immigration attorney in private practice, where she represented individuals and families from all over the world seeking a benefit or relief from deportation. After 9/11, she spent several years in the non-profit setting, drafting legislation, building coalitions with government officials and stakeholders, and developing policy on immigration law and policy reform. In 2003, Wadhia was named Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and, in 2008, was recognized for her leadership by the Department of Homeland Security. Wadhia holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from Indiana University Bloomington. |
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814-865-3823Wadhia’s Publications
Academic Press Books
Immigration and Nationality Law: Problems and Strategies, Second Edition (w. Lenni Benson and Steve Yale-Loehr) (Carolina Academic Press) (2020).
Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump (New York University Press, 2021, paperback; 2019, hardcover).
Beyond Deportation: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Cases (New York University Press 2017, paperback; 2015, hardcover).
Discretion and Disobedience in the Chinese Exclusion Era, Asian American Law Journal at Berkeley, (forthcoming 2022)
The Decitizenship of Asian American Women, (w. Margaret Hu), Col. L. Rev., Vol. 93 (2022).
The Case Against Chevron Deference in Immigration Adjudication, (w. Chris Walker), Duke Law Journal, Vol. 70, (2021). (selected contribution to fifty-first annual administrative law symposium)
Darkside Discretion in Immigration Cases, 72 Admin. L. Rev. 3. (2020).
National Security, Immigration and the Muslim Bans, 75 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1475 (2018).
Is Immigration Law National Security Law?, 66 Emory L.J. 669 (2017).
Beyond Deportation: Understanding Immigration Prosecutorial Discretion and United States v. Texas, 36 Immigr. & Nat’lity L. Rev. 94 (2015).
Demystifying Work Authorization and Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Cases, Colum. J. Race & L. 1 (2016).
The Aftermath of United States v. Texas: Rediscovering Deferred Action, Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment Aug. 10, 2016 (2016).
The Rise of Speed Deportation and the Role of Discretion, 5 Colum. J. Race & L. 1 (2015).
Response, In Defense of DACA, Deferred Action, and the DREAM Act, 91 Tex. L. Rev.: See Also 59 (2013).
My Great FOIA Adventure and Discoveries of Deferred Action Cases at ICE, 27 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 245 (2013).
The Immigration Prosecutor and the Judge: Examining the Role of the Judiciary in Prosecutorial Discretion Decisions, 16 Harv. Latino L. Rev. 39 (2013).
Sharing Secrets: Examining Deferred Action and Transparency in Immigration Law, 10 U. N.H.L. Rev. 1 (2012).
Business as Usual: Immigration and the National Security Exception, 114 Penn St. L. Rev. 1485 (2010).
The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Law, 9 Conn. Pub. Int. L.J. 243 (2010) Reprinted in Immigration and Nationality Law Review, William S. Hein & Co.
In Expert Defense of DACA, Immigr. & Nat’y L. Rev. (2021) (with Kevin Johnson)
Immigration Litigation in the Time of Trump, 53 UC Davis L. Rev. Online 121 (2019).
Americans in Waiting: Finding Solutions for Long Term Residents, 46 J. Legis. 29 (2019).
Immigration Enforcement and the Future of Discretion, 23 Roger Williams Univ. L. Rev. 2 (2018).
The President and Deportation: DACA, DAPA, and the Sources and Limits of Executive Authority - Response to Hiroshi Motomura, 55 Washburn L.J. 189 (2016).
Remarks on Executive Action and Immigration Reform, 48 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 137 (2015).
The History of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Law, 64 Am. U. L. Rev. 101 (2015).
Immigration Remarks for the 10th Annual Wiley A. Branton Symposium, 57 How. L.J. 931 (2014).
Under Arrest: Immigrants’ Rights and the Rule of Law, 28 U. Memphis L. Rev. 853 (2008).
The Policy and Politics of Immigrant Rights, 16 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 387 (2007).
Immigration: Mind Over Matter, 5 U. Md. L.J. Race, Religion, Gender, & Class 201 (2006).
Book Chapters and Shorter Works
Oxford University Press, Oxford Handbook of Comparative Immigration Law Contributors, Comparative Issues in Who is Admitted (forthcoming 2023)
Cambridge University Press, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Immigration Law Opinions, Rewritten Opinion of Plyler v. Doe (forthcoming 2023)
“Migration and the American Dream” (in the Routledge Handbook of the American Dream), (2021).
COVID-19 and Immigration: Reflections From the Penn State Law Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic (w. Kaitlyn Box) in Frontiers Dynamics (2020).
“Immigration in the Time of COVID-19” (in the book “Law in the Time of COVID-19”), Columbia Law School (2020).
Carolina Academic Press, Book Chapter, “Dreams Deferred: Deferred Action, Prosecutorial Discretion, and the Vexing Case(s) of DREAM Act Students” in Law Professor and Accidental Historian (2017).
American Bar Association, “Who are the Players in Immigration Law?” in What Every Lawyer Should Know About Immigration Law (2012).
SAGE Publications, “The Term Illegal Alien,” in Debates on U.S. Immigration, (2012).
“The Ties that Bind: How U.S. Immigration Laws Value Long-Time Residency,” in American Immigration Council (2018)
A Legacy of Exclusion and Racism Followed the Tragedy of 9/11, Phila. Inquirer (Sept. 4, 2021)
Prosecutorial Discretion in a Biden Administration, Part 3, Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (June 5, 2021)
Prosecutorial Discretion in the Biden Administration: Part 2, Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (Feb. 18, 2021)
Prosecturial Discretion in the Biden Administration, Yale J. on Reg: Notice & Comment (Jan. 21, 2021)
Biden ends the ‘Muslim ban’ on day one of his presidency but its legacy will linger, Phila. Inquirer (Jan. 20, 2021)
“The Cruelty Is the Point”: U.S. Still Denying Protection to Severely Ill People With No Legal Status — Despite Announcing Otherwise, MS. Magazine (Sept. 28, 2020) (with Mahsa Khanbabai and Audrey Allen)
Stay off our Streets: Federal troops storming cities undermine American Ideals, Phila. Inquirer (July 22, 2020)
Banning Immigrants, ABA Human Rights Magazine (2020) (with Mahsa Khanbabai)
From the travel ban to the border wall, restrictive immigration policies thrive on the shadow docket, Scotusblog (Oct. 27, 2020)
American Immigration Lawyers Association, Prosecutorial Discretion, Practice Advisory (w. A. Gallagher and A. Nunez) (2017).
American Immigration Lawyers Association, The Long and Winding Road of Prosecutorial Discretion, Practice Advisory (w. L. Wildes and P. Taurel) (2015).
“Immigration Law’s Catch-22: The Case for Removing the Three and Ten-Year Bars,” in LexisNexis Legal Newsroom Immigration Law (LexisNexis, November 2014).
“Reflections on Prosecutorial Discretion One Year After the Morton Memo,” in Emerging Issues Analysis (LexisNexis, June 2012).
“Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Agencies: A Year in Review,” in Emerging Issues Analysis (LexisNexis, January 2012).
Immigration Policy Center, The Morton Memo and Prosecutorial Discretion: An Overview, (July 2011).
Immigration Policy Center, American Immigration Council, Reading the Morton Memo: Federal Priorities and Prosecutorial Discretion, (December 2010).
“Letter to Lahore,” The Subcontinental Vol. 1, Issue 3 (2004) (with Sin Yen Ling).
Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, Immigration Policy: Transition Blueprint for the Obama Administration, (2008) (contributor).
Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law are reunifying to operate as Penn State University’s single law school, which will be known as Penn State Dickinson Law. While ABA approval for the reunification is pending, both schools are currently fully accredited. We submitted an application for acquiescence to operate as a single law school in July 2024 and plan to enroll a unified class in Fall 2025. Once reunification is complete, the separate faculties of each school will be members of the reunified Penn State Dickinson Law faculty.