Clinical Professor and Director of the Center for Immigrants’ Rights at the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. J.D., Georgetown University Law Center; B.A., Indiana University, with honors.
Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia joined Penn State Law in July 2008 as director of the school’s new Center for Immigrants’ Rights and as a clinical professor of law. She also teaches Asylum and Refugee Law and a clinical course on Immigration Law and Policy. Previously, Professor Wadhia worked for several years as deputy director for legal affairs at the National Immigration Forum, an immigration advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. During that time, Professor Wadhia was immersed in issues surrounding the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and “Post 9-11” executive branch policies impacting immigrant communities, and was a voice in the debates surrounding “comprehensive immigration reform.” She provided legal expertise and analysis of legislative and regulatory proposals; engaged in direct advocacy with Congress and the administration; and led an NGO-governmental work groups on immigrant due process and civil liberties. She also taught Immigration Law and Asylum and Refugee Law at Howard University School of Law and the American University Washington College of Law (2005-2008).
Prior to joining the National Immigration Forum, Professor Wadhia was an attorney with Maggio Kattar, P.C. in Washington, D.C., where she litigated deportation matters before the immigration courts in Virginia and Maryland and represented clients seeking asylum as well as those needing assistance with obtaining family and employment-based immigration benefits from the Department of Homeland Security (formerly INS). While a student at Georgetown University Law Center, she served as an editor for the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal and as a research assistant to former INS general counsel T. Alexander Aleinikoff.
Professor Wadhia is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers’ Guild and holds bar licenses in Maryland and New Jersey. She writes and speaks frequently on immigration law and policy.
Professor Wadhia was recognized in 2008 by both the Department of Homeland Security Office for Inspector General and the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for her years of leadership as co-chair of the NGO working group. In 2006, she was honored by the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties with a Leadership Award, and in 2003, she was named Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee. Professor Wadhia conducted human rights work in India and South Africa before she began her legal career.
Author of:
Business as Usual.1 114 Penn St. L. Rev. ___. *(forthcoming in Iqbal Symposium Issue)
From the Author:
1This author welcomes responses to this abstract and the upcoming article. The author may be contacted at:
- E-mail: ssw11@psu.edu
- Phone: (814) 865-3823