Marie Mark

Marie Mark is an Assistant Professor of Law teaching in the Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic at CUNY School of Law. She provides classroom instruction on immigration and related doctrinal law and legal skills. Her scholarship and practice is focuses on advocating for immigrants of color who are disproportionately targeted for arrest and deportation as a result of the intertwined criminal and immigrant policing systems in the United States. Professor Mark works with students to advocate for clients seeking to remain in the U.S. and support advocacy for systemic changes to state and federal law and policies that harm poor immigrants and immigrants of color. Prior to teaching at CUNY, she was Executive Director of the Immigrant Defense Project (IDP) and a Team Leader in the Immigration Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS).

Professor Mark began her legal career as an immigration attorney at BDS, a public defense organization in Brooklyn, NY. She worked collaboratively with criminal defense attorneys to represent immigrants accused of crimes in state court, engaging in plea negotiations, advocating for immigrant access to alternative to incarceration and navigating custody issues specific to immigrants as a result of local collusion with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Professor Mark also represented clients with pending criminal charges and convictions in immigration court. She has argued against the deportation of people who fear persecution in their country of citizenship, vulnerable children eligible for humanitarian status, and longtime lawful residents.

Professor Mark also spent almost a decade working at IDP, eventually becoming the organization’s Executive Director. IDP is a national nonprofit that advocates for immigrants of color targeted for arrest and deportation after contacts with the criminal legal system. The organization uses a multipronged strategy that includes impact litigation, direct advice and technical assistance for immigrants with criminal legal system contacts, policy and legislative advocacy, and strategic communications to combat the racist criminal and immigration legal systems.

Professor Mark has previously taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law. She is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Swarthmore College.