St. Thomas Law Professor Michael Vastine - Legal Leader on Immigrant Rights

Professor Michael Vastine

St. Thomas University School of Law remains on the front lines in the efforts to establish and preserve immigrant rights. Through the St. Thomas Law Immigration Clinic and the Human Rights Institute, a broad range of immigration and human rights-related issues are being tackled including  legislation and its effect on immigrants.

Professor Michael Vastine, who serves as director of the St. Thomas Law Immigration Clinic, also holds a key leadership role in the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He has argued before the US Court of Appeals, and submitted  arguments that get widely circulated within the immigration bar regarding major case issues with national and international impact.

• In September 2017, he argued Choizilme v. U.S. Attorney General at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, regarding the immigration implications of the Florida drug sale statute that reverses the presumption of innocence regarding mens rea* of the illicit nature of the controlled substance involved. 

• The Connecticut Supreme Court agreed, in Jerzy G. v. State of Connecticut, with the arguments he forwarded in as amicus curiae** counsel, and established that equal protection demands that Connecticut courts retain jurisdiction in criminal post-conviction (including appellate) Sixth Amendment-related litigation, notwithstanding the physical deportation of the defendant.

• Professor Vastine was also a participant in the litigation summit of the American Immigration Counsel; and led a panel The Most Recent Developments in the Categorical/Modified Categorical Approaches, at AILA’s Advanced Litigation Conference, in Portland, Oregon.

• He most recently attended the first two days of the October 2017 term of the U.S. Supreme Court in order to blog for AILA in the cases Sessions v. Dimaya (deportability for potentially violent crimes) and Jennings v. Rodriguez (prolonged immigration detention). His analysis of the case can be viewed below.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

The St. Thomas Law Immigration Clinic serves as a conduit for the training of the next generation immigration lawyers and advocates. It is available to second- and third-year law students and is designed to provide the legal, ethical, and moral tools needed to provide high-quality immigration services to under-served communities. Students represent asylum seekers, battered spouses and children, and other non-citizens seeking immigration relief in Immigration Court, before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Department of Homeland Security.

mens rea* -  legal phrase used to describe the mental state a person must be in while committing a crime for it to be intentional

amicus curiae**  - person who is not a party to a case, but who assists a court by offering information that bears on the case.