Nadine Wettstein is the Director of the Immigration Division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, created in response to Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S.Ct. 1473 (2010), requiring defense counsel to advise clients of immigration consequences of criminal conduct.   She also is the founder and coordinator of the Regional Crim-Imm Collaborative, involving practitioners from area nonprofit organizations and private practice from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Formerly, Ms. Wettstein was the Director of the American Immigration Council’s Legal Action Center, where she litigated class action and other immigration impact cases in federal and administration courts, including as lead counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court (INS v. Aguirre-Aguirre, 526 U.S. 415 (1999)). 

She has mentored and educated hundreds of lawyers, including developing and running innovative training programs such as AILA’s Litigation Institute for immigration lawyers, and the Immigration and Criminal Defense Institute, for criminal and immigration defenders throughout the D.C. region.

 She was a Commissioner on the ABA Commission on Immigration and was co-author of the immigration law treatise, Immigration Law Service 2d, published by West (Thomson-Reuters).  She has received several awards for her work, including the 2017 Champion of Justice Award from the Maryland Public Defender and the 2014 Immigrant Advocate Award from the CAIR Coalition of Washington, D.C.