Profile

Shaw Drake teaches in the law clinic and focuses on U.S. border law and policy, immigration, and accountability mechanisms for federal enforcement agencies. His scholarship examines the legal and human rights implications of U.S. border enforcement, with particular expertise on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and systemic failures in oversight, transparency, and redress for abuse. With unprecedented federal funding flowing to CBP, Professor Drake’s current research analyzes Border Patrol’s expansive authority and the reforms needed to ensure meaningful oversight and accountability for the nation’s largest law enforcement agency.

Before joining UNM School of Law, Professor Drake served as a Clinical Supervising Attorney and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School’s International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic, designing and supervising litigation and advocacy projects across the Americas and Africa. He previously spent five years at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where he led major policy and legal initiatives on border and immigration issues, served as co-counsel in federal litigation challenging Title 42 expulsions and expedited asylum interviews, and mounted a multi-year advocacy effort that led to the reform of CBP’s vehicle pursuit policy to better align with national best practices.

Professor Drake’s earlier experience includes clerking for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and serving as an Equal Justice Works Fellow with Human Rights First, where he authored influential reports on the immigration courts, asylum access, and border enforcement. He has testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and is a frequent speaker on border governance, human rights, and immigration policy. He also serves on the board of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, TX.

His recent scholarship includes Deadly Deterrence: Border Patrol Authority, Pursuits, and Deported Witnesses (San Diego Law Review, 2024), along with numerous articles in national outlets such as The New York Times, Newsweek, and Just Security.

Professor Drake earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he received the Bettina Pruckmayr Memorial Award in Human Rights and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He holds an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Immigration Law from the City University of New York and a B.A. with highest honors in Latin American Studies and Romance Languages from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is fluent in Spanish