"I have never met a law teacher more committed to her students than you" -Tom M

Dear Vanessa,

I have never met a person more committed to justice than you, committed to justice for the poor, for persons of color, for women, for the LGBTQ+ community, for asylum-seekers and other immigrants, and for all other vulnerable people. I have never met a law teacher more committed to her students than you—by making them work extraordinarily hard, but also by mentoring and nurturing them and helping them become the best and the most ethical attorneys they can be.

You are a most creative, inspirational law teacher. I will never forget your masterful performance as an ICE agent in the skit in one of the Immigration Justice Clinic’s public outreach events to the immigrant community. I also was impressed by your telling students to “make newer and better mistakes,” the idea being that we all make mistakes in law practice and that we have to strive to learn from them to become excellent attorneys. Your taking the Clinic to Dilley, Texas (and other immigration detention centers) to represent recently apprehended asylum-seekers created memorable experiences for both Clinic attorneys and students. Among other things, that experience helped students appreciate not only the cruelty of much of our immigration law and practice, but also how much of a difference they as attorneys can make in protecting immigrants’ rights. I was struck by how much you trusted the students after you worked so hard with them to get the law applicable to their cases right.

The winner of countless awards for your work in advancing social justice, you have become a towering figure as an immigration law clinician, legislative advocate, and immigration attorney. You essentially wrote the Westchester Country Immigration Protection Act, the first of its kind in the United States. The Act prohibits county personnel from questioning individuals about their immigration status. You are a leader in the anti-notario movement to stop notaries who pass themselves off as immigration experts, but in fact defraud their clients and often push them into deportation proceedings. Let me recount just one example of your dedication to your clients.

Space does not permit me to detail everything you did for this client whose case in the Clinic spanned over 15 years. You supervised the Clinic students in twice taking appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as well as trips to the Board of Immigration Appeals. You supervised the clinical students in handling the remands, and, after he was deported, you still did not give up on him. You worked ceaselessly on his behalf (as you have done for all your clients). Among other actions, you supervised the Clinic students in helping him get a pardon from the governor and you handled the very difficult, challenging procedure in having him, a deported noncitizen, be returned to the United States. Once he was allowed back, you represented him in a motion to reopen for him to adjust status, for which you filed several hundred pages of supporting documents and supporting argument to successfully get his green card restored.

You are a passionate, fearless and outstanding advocate and law teacher who often fiercely defends her point of view, but anyone who really knows you, knows that you possess a heart of gold. I have been so privileged to have together with you co-taught the Immigration Justice Clinic and to have co-written a law review article. But far more important to me than that terrific experience is that you have been such a dear friend.
Congratulations on the life that you have lived and the legacy that you have created!

Tom M