Nermeen Arastu is an Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law. In this role, she guides her students in representing non-citizens throughout all aspects of the immigration system, with a mission to advocate for the most marginalized immigrant populations. Her scholarship and advocacy focus on critical issues of racial, religious, and disability-based disparities in immigration adjudication and enforcement. 

Nermeen's recent work has been published in prestigious journals and media outlets, including the UCLA Law Review, Harvard Human Rights Journal, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, Newsweek, City Limits, and Slate. She has also served on the Transition Team of then Public Advocate-elect Letitia James, co-chairs the Bellow Scholars Program—a national fellowship for clinical law professors pursuing empirical research to inform their advocacy—and received the Rising Star Award from her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

 

Before joining CUNY, Nermeen practiced as a litigation associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP and worked as a staff attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), where she led the Immigrant Rights Program and Post-9/11 Civil Liberties Project. She holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.