International perspective
by Suzi Morales, J.D.
A serendipitous meeting of St. Mary’s University School of Law faculty and two Mexico City-based lawyers resulted in a mutually beneficial and enlightening result — a new book on immigration — that offers a binational perspective on the history, law and policy of immigration.
In November 2024, St. Mary’s Law faculty met with Alejandro Zeind, J.D., and Antonio Zeind, J.D., principals of the Zeind & Zeind law firm in Mexico City. In addition to running their firm, the Zeind brothers teach at the School of Law of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and frequently collaborate with their local bar association on writing projects to shed light on current issues. They invited St. Mary’s Law faculty members and students to write a book about immigration.
From the seed planted during that first meeting came the newly released book, Migration: A Binational Perspective: Mexico and the United States, by a group of more than 50 co-authors, including St. Mary’s Law faculty and students, UNAM law students and attorneys from the U.S. and Mexico.
“From my perspective as a law professor, our chapters are not like law review articles,” said Erica Schommer, J.D., St. Mary’s Law Clinical Professor of Law and South Texas Professor. “They’re not as academic; they’re not as dense, which means that they’re much more accessible. It is a book for anybody who’s interested in immigration issues.”
St. Mary’s Law students began work during Schommer’s weeklong immigration intensive seminar in January 2025. Over the next few months, groups of two students and an attorney mentor outlined, researched and wrote chapters, as their Mexican counterparts from UNAM were doing the same.
In November 2025, a panel of the book’s co-authors, including Schommer and St. Mary’s Law Dean Patricia Roberts, J.D., presented the book during the Guadalajara International Book Fair, one of the largest book expos in the world, held in Guadalajara, Mexico.
