Immigration law expert Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia directs Penn State’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights, an immigration policy clinic where students produce practitioner toolkits, white papers, and primers of national impact on behalf of client organizations. Professor Wadhia researches the role of prosecutorial discretion in immigration law; the association between detention, removal and due process; and the intersection between immigration, national security, and race. Prior to joining Penn State Law, Professor Wadhia was deputy director for legal affairs at the National Immigration Forum in Washington, D.C., where she worked on issues surrounding the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “post 9-11” executive branch policies impacting immigrant communities, and comprehensive immigration reform.

Professor Wadhia has been honored by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Inspector General and Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. She has also been an associate with Maggio Kattar, P.C. in Washington, D.C., where she litigated asylum, deportation, and employment-based immigration benefits matters. She has also taught immigration courses at the American University’s Washington College of Law and Howard University School of Law.

Professor Wadhia serves on the ABA Commission on Immigration, national committees of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and is a member National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers’ Guild. 
  

Books

The Power of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Law (New York University Press, forthcoming)

Law Reviews

“My Great FOIA Adventure and Discoveries of Deferred Action Cases at ICE,” Geo. Immig. L.J. (forthcoming 2013)

Response to “The Obama Administration, the DREAM Act and the Take Care Clause,” 91 Texas L. Rev. See Also (forthcoming 2013)

“The Immigration Prosecutor and the Judge: Examining the Role of the Judiciary in Prosecutorial Discretion Decisions,” Harv. Latino L. Rev. (forthcoming 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 State L. Rev. 1485 (2010)

“The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Law,” 9 Connecticut Pub. Int. L. J. 243 (2010) (reprinted in Immigration and Nationality Law Review, William S. Hein & Co.)

“Under Arrest: Immigrants’ Rights and the Rule of Law,” 38 U. Memphis L. Rev. 853 (2008).

“The Policy and Politics of Immigrant Rights,” 16 Temple Pol. & Civil Rts. L. Rev. 387 (2007)

“Immigration: Mind Over Matter,” 5 U. Md. L. J. on Race, Religion, Gender & Class 201 (2006)

Book Chapters and Essays

“Reflections on Prosecutorial Discretion One Year After the Morton Memo,” in Emerging Issues Analysis (LexisNexis, June 2012).

“Who are the Players in Immigration Law?” in What Every Lawyer Should Know About Immigration Law (American Bar Association 2012)

“Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Agencies: A Year in Review,” in Emerging Issues Analysis (LexisNexis, January 2012)

“The Term Illegal Alien,” in Debates on U.S. Immigration, (Sage Publications, 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)