March 08, 2022
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Women's History Month: Immigrant rights advocate inspires her students to change laws | Opinion - NJ.com

Women’s History Month: Immigrant rights advocate inspires her students to change laws
Anju Gupta is a professor of law and director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic in Newark. Gupta teaches refugee law and professional responsibility. She reminds her students about their potential to transform the law and shows them that as advocates they can make the world a better place.

By Rose Cuison-Villazor

In a 2017 interview, former first lady Michelle Obama commented, “Choose people who lift you up. Find people who make you better.”

When I think of this quote, Anju Gupta comes to mind. Gupta is a professor of law, a Chester J. Straub Scholar and the director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic in Newark. Last summer, I asked her to serve as vice dean of the law school in Newark and I am grateful that she did.

As a law professor, Gupta teaches refugee law and professional responsibility. She is a phenomenal professor who teaches her students not only what the law is but also encourages them to consider what the law should be. Through this approach, she reminds her students about their potential to transform the law and shows them that as advocates, they can make the world a better place.

Dean Gupta similarly takes this approach in directing the Immigrant Rights Clinic. She and her students represent immigrants who seek relief from removal, apply for asylum or refugee status, or seek protection because they are victims of human trafficking.

In the last few years, this clinic has had to contend with a higher caseload due to unprecedented changes to asylum law and immigration enforcement. Despite these challenges, Dean Gupta faced them with grace and found ways to inspire and mentor her students and, in so doing, also lifted up the lives of their clients.

Not only is Dean Gupta an effective professor and advocate teacher but she is also an influential legal scholar. In a recent essay, “Dismantling the Wall,” which will be published in the Michigan Law Review online, Dean Gupta and her co-author Charles Shane Ellison highlight the changes to the asylum law that took place in the Trump administration that erected an administrative “wall” to refugees.

Notably, they argue that this wall continues under the Biden administration and they propose solutions to tear it down to ensure a more equitable and welcoming asylum and refugee law.

Overall, I am grateful to Dean Gupta for all the ways that she inspires so many people. We have all become better people because of her.

Rose Cuison-Villazor is the interim dean at Rutgers Law School in Newark.

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source: https://www.nj.com/opinion/2022/03/womens-history-month-immigrant-rights-advocate-inspires-her-students-to-change-laws-opinion.html

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