Dean Johnson Interviewed by KQED on Trust Act and California Immigration

Dean Kevin R. Johnson contributed comments and insight to a new report by Bay Area National Public Radio affiliate KQED regarding the impacts of California's Trust Act, which prohibits local police from holding immigrants presumed to be undocumented for federal agents if the immigrants were arrested for minor crimes. According to an Associated Press survey, the number of people held for possible deportation has dropped by 44 percent during the first two months of this year.

"I'm not surprised at all by the size of the drop," said Dean Johnson. "The concern with the federal government's removal programs has been that low-level criminal offenders have been caught up in the web of the criminal justice system, and are being deported for relatively minor crimes like driving without a license."

Kevin R. Johnson is Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o studies at UC Davis School of Law. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.

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