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Professor Wadhia to deliver keynote address at event honoring volunteers who provide services to immigrants


UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and director of the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Penn State Law, will deliver the keynote address at the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center’s (PIRC) Light of Liberty Award Reception on March 18 in York, Pa.

The event honors PIRC volunteers who provide legal and other services to immigrants who are detained in Pennsylvania. PIRC is a nonprofit organization that provides access to justice for immigrants in detention and in the community through legal services, education, and advocacy.

Penn State Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic regularly collaborates with PIRC to provide pro bono legal services to immigrants throughout Pennsylvania. The clinic and PIRC recently teamed up to create a practice guide for attorneys representing noncitizens in withholding-only proceedings.

Wadhia, a former PIRC board member, is an expert on immigration law and one of the nation’s leading scholars on the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law. Her scholarship in this area has served as a foundation for scholars, advocates, and government officials seeking to understand or design a strong prosecutorial discretion policy. Her work identifies the historical role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law, the extent to which some acts of discretion operate as a benefit, and the dynamic role and need for transparency, sound procedures, and accountability. Her book, Beyond Deportation: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Cases, will be published this year by New York University Press and is the first on the topic.

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