Professor Rebecca Sharpless, associate dean for experiential learning and director of the Immigration Clinic, recently published Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air. Published by the University of California Press, the book documents how in December 2017, U.S. immigration authorities shackled and abused 92 African refugees for two days while attempting to deport them by plane to Somalia. When national media broke the story, government officials lied about what happened. Shackled tells the story of this harrowing failed deportation, the resulting class action litigation, and two men's search for safety in the United States over the course of three long years. Sharpless, as lead counsel for the group of 92, provides a rare look at the brute-force mechanics of deportation in the United States.
Sharpless researches and writes in the areas of immigration law, progressive lawyering, and the intersection of immigration and criminal law. Her scholarship focuses on how hierarchies within these areas affect the most marginalized, denigrated, and unpopular groups. Professor Sharpless’ work addresses the harms and limitations of the conceptual framework for immigration reform that draws its narrative force from a contrast between model immigrants and people who have been convicted of a criminal offense.
The docket and pedagogy of the Immigration Clinic reflect and inform Sharpless' scholarly work. With her clinic students, she represents indigent noncitizens in removal proceedings and engages in litigation in U.S. district court and before the U.S. courts of appeals. She also speaks widely on immigration law, including at academic symposia and events such as the annual conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
