Professor Wadhia co-authors new immigration law textbook

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and Clinical Professor of Law at Penn State Law in University Park, has co-authored a new immigration and nationality law textbook, published by Carolina Academic Press.

The book, Immigration and Nationality Law: Problems and Strategies, was published in December 2019 and has an available teacher’s manual. Wadhia, with fellow authors Lenni B. Benson and Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, drew on nearly 100 years of collective immigration law experience and practice to compile the book of teaching hypotheticals.

Designed for both law students and attorneys, the book covers statutory provisions, and key immigration law cases while providing an understanding of the many government agencies involved in the complicated immigration process, and how to navigate the variety of adjudications that are central to the U.S. immigration system. This second edition goes beyond doctrine to implications for strategies and policies.

Professor Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia is the Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and Clinical Professor of Law at Penn State Law in University Park. Her research focuses on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law and the intersections of race, national security, and immigration. She has published more than thirty law review articles, book chapters and essays on immigration law. Her work has been published in Emory Law Journal; Texas Law Review; Washington and Lee Law Review, Columbia Journal of Race and Law; Notice & Comment, Yale Journal on Regulation; Harvard Latino Law Review; Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal; Georgetown Immigration Law Journal; and Howard Law Journal. Wadhia’s first book, Beyond Deportation: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Cases, was published by New York University Press in 2015 and named an honorable mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her second book, Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump, was released on September 10, 2019 by New York University Press.

Wadhia regularly authors opinion pieces on a range of immigration topics, and has published such pieces in the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Hill, blog for the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS Blog), blog of the Harvard Law Review, American Constitution Society, American Immigration Council, Yale Journal on Regulation’s Notice & Comment, and Immigration Law Professors Blog. She has also served as an expert witness, lead author or co-counsel in connection with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the asylum ban, the travel ban, and prosecutorial discretion more generally.

At Penn State Law, Professor Wadhia teaches doctrinal courses in immigration and asylum and refugee law. She is also the founder/director of the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic (CIRC), where she supervises students in three areas: 1) community outreach; 2) legal support in individual immigration cases; and 3) policy work for institutional clients. CIRC has earned a national reputation for its high-quality work product and impact in the community.