Winner, 2020 Best Book Award, Law Category, given by the American Book Fest
Examines immigration enforcement and discretion during the first eighteen months of the Trump administration
Within days of taking office, President Donald J. Trump published or announced changes to immigration law and policy. These changes have profoundly shaken the lives and well-being of immigrants and their families, many of whom have been here for decades, and affected the work of the attorneys and advocates who represent or are themselves part of the immigrant community. Banned examines the tool of discretion, or the choice a government has to protect, detain, or deport immigrants, and describes how the Trump administration has wielded this tool in creating and executing its immigration policy.
Banned combines personal interviews, immigration law, policy analysis, and case studies to answer the following questions: (1) what does immigration enforcement and discretion look like in the time of Trump? (2) who is affected by changes to immigration enforcement and discretion?; (3) how have individuals and families affected by immigration enforcement under President Trump changed their own perceptions about the future?; and (4) how do those informed about immigration enforcement and discretion describe the current state of affairs and perceive the future? Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia pairs the contents of these interviews with a robust analysis of immigration enforcement and discretion during the first eighteen months of the Trump administration and offers recommendations for moving forward.
The story of immigration and the role immigrants play in the United States is significant. The government has the tools to treat those seeking admission, refuge, or opportunity in the United States humanely. Banned offers a passionate reminder of the responsibility we all have to protect America’s identity as a nation of immigrants.

"This meticulously argued work succeeds in illuminating with plain language what the immigration system obscures behind jargon and steel bars." - STARRED Library Journal

"Banned is a significant witness to this unprecedented time in immigration policy." - William Stock, Founding Partner, Klasko Immigration Law Partners, and Past President, American Immigration Lawyers Association

"From separating families to banning Muslims to countless other cruelties, President Trump has claimed an almost limitless power to banish immigrants and refugees from our land. The nation’s leading expert on immigration enforcement eloquently exposes the illegality of these policies and their devastating impact on immigrant and refugee families." - Stephen H. Legomsky, John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus, Washington University in St Louis School of Law, and former Chief Counsel, US Citizenship & Immigration Services

"Very accessibly written, the book will be a great resource for those with little concrete knowledge of immigration issues in the Trump era. Minimal use of jargon makes the book valuable to a very wide audience, including readers across the entire spectrum of higher education." - Choice

"Shoba Wadhia provides a great deal of food for thought for readers." - Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews

"Banned ... [provides] valuable insight into the many layers of discretion that impact persons crossing borders, beginning with the first encounter that migrants have with border officials, and extending all the way to the highest levels of an administration that has sought to implement far-reaching changes in policy without regard for longstanding rules against arbitrary and capricious behavior." - International Journal of Refugee Law

"Banned is an excellent book for a general audience reader hoping to gain a quick understanding of immigration changes under Trump, as well as for a reader more familiar with immigration law who will appreciate seeing the major currents organized and described so deftly in a short space." - International Migration Review

"This book should not only resonate with migration scholars, lawyers, and policymakers, but also with a broader public audience who feel anxious and emboldened in these exponentially terrifying times." - Border Criminologies