Professor Wadhia to deliver two talks in Philadelphia on new book

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Professor Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, leading immigration scholar and author, will be speaking at two Philadelphia law schools on Sept. 10, discussing her book Beyond Deportation: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Cases. Wadhia will speak at Temple University Beasley School of Law at noon and Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law at 5:15 p.m.

At Temple, Wadhia will be joined by Widener University Commonwealth Law School Professor Jill Family, an expert in the administrative law questions relating to prosecutorial discretion. They will discuss the federal government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) programs, both of which are forms of prosecutorial discretion used by the Department of Homeland Security to protect certain noncitizens from deportation.

At Drexel, Wadhia will participate in a panel discussion on the same topic with William Stock, president-elect for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Professor Anil Kalhan of Drexel. A book signing will follow.

Beyond Deportation​, published by New York University 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.

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. 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.