Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air, written by Professor Rebecca Sharpless, director of the Immigration Clinic and associate dean for experiential learning, was recently recognized as a Readers Choice Book Award finalist.
Shackled is the harrowing true story of Flight N225AX, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement aircraft that attempted to deport 92 people from the United States to Somalia in 2017. It tells the story of the men and women who were shackled in chains on the aircraft for two days. The aircraft was grounded in Senegal, and the passengers were immobilized in their seats. Unable to complete the journey, the plane was forced to return back to the United States. The passengers were treated like slaves, abused by staff, and unable to use the bathroom facilities.
Based on extensive research and first-hand testimonies, the book describes the inhumane treatment the passengers experienced on board the flight, and their subsequent fight to stay in the United States. Readers are taken inside the legal battles that followed, as lawyers and advocacy groups sought to stop the deportations permanently.
In addition to the Readers Choice Book Award, Sharpless's book has received other awards and recognition including an IPPY Award (Independent Publisher Book Award), 2024 (bronze, current events category) and Clinical Legal Education Association, Honorable Mention, Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project, 2024.
She has also participated in the following in 2024-25:
- "Asylum Claims Based Upon a 'Pattern or Practice' of Persecution and Disfavored Groups," American Immigration Law Association, March 20, 2025.
- Speaker, "Human Rights Dialogues: Xenophobia and Migration in the Southwest Border Region," University of Texas, October 22, 2024.
- Book Talk, Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air, The Books & Books Literary Foundation, September 28, 2024.
- Guest Lecturer, Harvard University, "Detention, Deportation, and Due Process: A Look at the Innerworkings of the U.S. Immigration System and How It Can Be Changed," September 12, 2024.
- Book Talk, Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, Atlanta, September 11, 2024.
- Speaker, "Somali 92: Clinic and Community Collaborations to Defend Detainees On ICE Air," 2024 National Immigration Scholars Conference, May 29, 2024.
- Book Talk, Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air: Reading and Discussion in Conversation with Cani Adan and Nasra Ismail, Milkweeds Book Store, Minneapolis, May 29, 2024.
Sharpless teaches immigration law at The School of Law. She 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.
