News & Commentary written by Shaw Drake

Shaw Drake joined the ACLU Border Rights Center in 2018 as Policy Counsel. In this role he defends border communities against unconstitutional and inhumane policies, and develops border-related advocacy strategies, working closely with other ACLU border affiliates and ACLU national.

Prior to joining the ACLU, Shaw served as a law clerk for the Honorable James Orenstein in the Eastern District of New York and an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Human Rights First, where he authored the report “Crossing the Line – U.S. Border Agents Illegally Reject Asylum Seekers.” Shaw’s work during law school included travel, research, and writing on statelessness in the Dominican Republic, disappearances in Mexico, protests in Venezuela, surveillance and racial discrimination in Colombia, and military justice in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Before law school, Shaw worked for the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture in New York City and No More Deaths in Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora, Mexico.

Shaw graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he received a Juris Doctor, a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies, the Bettina Pruckmayr Award in Human Rights, and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He holds a B.A. with highest honors in Latin American Studies and Romance Language from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shaw serves on the Steering Committee of the International Migration Bill of Rights (IMBR) Initiative. He speaks fluent Spanish.