UCLA School of Law professor Hiroshi Motomura was awarded an honorary degree by Loyola University New Orleans at the school’s commencement ceremony on May 11.

Motomura, UCLA Law’s Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law, earned an honorary doctor of humane letters degree for his internationally renowned advocacy and scholarship in immigration and citizenship law. In a lavish ceremony held inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Maria Calzada, Loyola’s interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, presented the degree to Motomura, noting his “dedication to ensuring the rights of immigrants and refugees and educating the world about legal issues concerning the underserved.”

Other honorees included Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards; celebrated New Orleans musician Deacon John Moore; Touro Synagogue rabbi Alexis Berk; and philanthropist Gayle Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans.

A member of the UCLA Law faculty since 2008, Motomura is a leading professor and scholar of immigration law whose work has influenced immigration policy at the local, state, and federal levels across the nation.

Motomura’s books Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States (Oxford 2006) and Immigration Outside the Law (Oxford 2014) won the Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PROSE) Award from the Association of American Publishers as the best books on legal studies in their respective years of publication. In 2017, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on his upcoming book.