Professor Wadhia to speak in DC at event on her book and 'U.S. v. Texas'

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Law professor Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia will be in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 24 for a panel discussion on her book Beyond Deportation: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Cases and the pending United States V. Texas Supreme Court case.

The discussion is scheduled for 12 p.m. in room Y116 at the American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL). The event is co-sponsored by AUWCL and that school’s Program on Law & Government.

Joining Wadhia in the panel discussion are Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association; Juan Osuna, director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Department of Justice; and Peter Spiro, professor of law at the Temple University School of Law. The discussion will be moderated by AUWCL professor Amanda Frost.

Beyond Deportation, published by NYU Press, is the first book to comprehensively describe the history, theory, and application of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law. It provides a rich history of the role of prosecutorial discretion in the immigration system and unveils the powerful role it plays in protecting individuals from deportation and saving the government resources. Wadhia draws on her years of experience as an immigration attorney, policy leader, and law professor to advocate for a bolder standard on prosecutorial discretion, greater mechanisms for accountability when such standards are ignored, improved transparency about the cases involving prosecutorial discretion, and recognition of “deferred action” in the law as a formal benefit.

In United States v. Texas, the Supreme Court must decide the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s deferred action programs.

Wadhia, Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and director of the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Penn State Law, is an expert on immigration law and one of the nation’s leading scholars on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law.